Chapter 271: An Irresistible Temptation (First Update)

At the bend of the North River outside Suzhou, Luo Tongda had been directing the main army's assault on Suzhou city for barely three days when the Ganzhou Khagan Renyu arrived with more than six thousand follow-up cavalry.

Fortunately, Luo Tongda's task was simply to pin down the Ganzhou men and make them dash their heads bloody here.

So as soon as the army reached Suzhou, the Guiyi Army began piling up breastworks and setting up a fortified camp — especially Zhang Zhao's Fenjin Company, whose earthwork skills were quite professional; in a few days they built a crude but serviceable camp.

The bulk of the Ganzhou Uyghur forces were cavalry, and they inherited the age-old weakness of steppe peoples: they came and went like the wind, but their siege-craft was truly not fit to be shown in public.

And it was not only them — the later Western Xia and Liao states were the same. The reason the Mongols of Genghis Khan's time were so ferocious was partly that their ability to storm fortifications was the best among steppe peoples of any age.

So once the Guiyi Army had its camp set up and had withdrawn all its cavalry inside, the Ganzhou Uyghurs found they could not bite through it — even though most of the camp was only piled-up stone.

"Man Xiong! Man Xiong! Get your men up there now and scatter those great-shield bearers and the heavy-armored troops behind them!" Yan Jin gripped his long saber and roared at Man Xiong beside him, who wore three layers of armor.

Because Zhang Zhao had planned to use cavalry to raid the Ganzhou Uyghurs, Man Xiong and the others had not gone with Zhang Zhao but had stayed outside Suzhou city.

Man Xiong glanced at the mass of armored soldiers opposite, who were advancing holding huge bar-shaped shields, and poured down a great mouthful of wine.

Then he looked back at the armored soldiers behind him, who wore the same three layers of armor, waved his hand, and charged out first through a gap in the stone wall.

Khagan Renyu quietly watched this assault on the Guiyi Army camp. He had not committed many troops — fewer than two thousand — this was a probing attack.

Amid the howls of armored soldiers on both sides, Khagan Renyu fixed his gaze and saw a bear-like warrior burst out from behind the stone wall.

The man carried a great axe, and before he even reached the great shields he took more than ten arrows fired from behind them.

Yet this bear-like warrior did not slow his steps in the slightest; clearly the arrows had failed to pierce his armor. Sure enough, after he ran a few more steps, the arrows stuck in his body began clattering to the ground.

Against such great shields there was no clever method — you simply closed in and hacked with all your might.

Man Xiong's strength had always been extraordinary, and after years of being fed lavishly with meat and fish by Zhang Zhao, his body had grown even stronger.

He swung the great axe in his hands and hacked away in a frenzy; the long spears thrust out through the gaps in the great shields were chopped off one after another at the head.

Even when they were not chopped off, piercing through Man Xiong's armor of two layers of padded cotton plus one layer of ring-mail was extremely difficult.

The armored soldiers behind him arrived one after another. They were all men from Zhang Zhao's Hanshan Company who were poor at riding and shooting but skilled at foot combat; they had fought together for more than four years and their coordination was already flawless.

Every man carried iron hammers and great axes, and against the Ganzhou Uyghurs' combination of three great shields with spearmen and archers, they fought desperately to force their way inside.

At last, one great shield was completely hacked apart by Man Xiong, exposing the spearmen and saber-and-shield men behind it.

Laughing wildly, Man Xiong was the first to charge in, and before long this shield formation was slaughtered through from within.

The Uyghur armored soldiers behind the great shield scattered and fled, while Man Xiong fixed his eyes on another great-shield formation nearby.

The Ganzhou Uyghurs were weak at foot combat to begin with, and once their shield formation was broken through, they were immediately beaten back step by step.

Khagan Renyu, who had been watching the battlefield all along, immediately ordered the gong sounded for withdrawal. The shield-formation infantry, who had long been unable to hold and were waiting to retreat, came pouring back down.

Man Xiong led his men in a pursuit for a while, until the retreating Uyghur infantry began forming up again. Seeing that he could no longer take advantage, he cursed and grumbled as he led his men back.

Something is off! Khagan Renyu frowned. He had never before seen the armor worn by that squad of warriors.

Moreover, the fighting style of this squad of armored soldiers made his eyelids twitch, giving him an indescribable feeling — as if they were brimming with vitality!

Yes! Vitality! In the past the Shazhou Han had also fought bravely, but Khagan Renyu had always felt there was an indescribable air of decline about them. What he saw today was completely different from before.

The Uyghurs had raised great shields originally to cover their infantry while they tore down the stone wall outside the Guiyi Army camp.

Because the Guiyi Army's archers could use the stone wall as cover to trade shots with them, Uyghur archers without cover were at a severe disadvantage.

In the end the great-shield men went up three times, and each time Yan Jin sent Man Xiong, Dunzhu, and a fierce Captain named Luo Yide with their men to beat them back.

It happened to be high noon, so Khagan Renyu simply called off the attack and summoned his subordinate tribal chiefs and army officers to discuss matters.

As a Khagan who in history had controlled the Ganzhou Uyghurs for nearly twenty years, and who had brought this Uyghur tribe — whose city of Ganzhou had once been stormed by Cao Yijin — back to strength, Khagan Renyu clearly sensed that something was wrong.

"Siyi, you have always been the one sent as envoy to Shazhou. Tell me, what sort of men are the three Cao brothers? Is Cao Yijin truly critically ill, or already dead of illness?"

Khagan Renyu asked his nephew beside him. As a branch of Uyghurs with very close relations to the Li-Tang royal house, the Ganzhou Uyghurs had gradually begun to sinicize their naming.

Still, they followed the old pattern of naturalized Uyghur names — Sizhong, Siyi, Guihua, Tongshun, Shunyi, the sort that at a single hearing sound like names bestowed on minorities.

Yaoluoge Siyi cupped his hands in a very sinicized gesture. "In reply to the Khagan, in your servant's observation, the three Cao brothers, though not mediocre men, can at best be called house-guarding dogs. Cao Yuande is steady in his conduct, more than steady enough, but lacking in adaptability.

As for Lord Cao, several months ago the Heavenly Princess sent word making clear that he frequently falls into deathlike faints and can scarcely rise from his bed. It should be true.

Moreover, if Lord Cao were still alive, the Heavenly Princess and her children would never have been harmed!"

"Steady enough, but lacking in adaptability." Khagan Renyu murmured the phrase a few times, seeming somewhat unable to make up his mind.

"Does the Khagan feel something is off about those Shazhou Han? In your servant's view, this is precisely direct proof that Cao Yijin has already died of illness!"

"Oh? Why does the Left Yabghu say so?" Khagan Renyu turned and asked in surprise.

"That Cao Yijin, though he did not rise through military merit, understood military affairs quite well. He governed the army with strictness and rectitude, and in battle he favored grand, sweeping movements, winning by force.

Something like this — deliberately putting oneself in a desperate position, calling it a siege but acting as though they had been sent over to be beaten — does not look like something Cao Yijin would do. It looks more like the result of blind, chaotic command."

The Uyghurs in the tent nodded in unison, all feeling that what the Left Yabghu said was reasonable.

This style of fighting, putting oneself in a passive position right at the start, truly did not look like some scheme or ambush; it really did look like something a battlefield novice would do.

"Even if there is a trick, it does not matter. The Hexi corridor is long and narrow; there is no way to circle around to the rear, cut off our line of retreat, or sever our supply lines — such things are sheer fantasy.

The most likely possibility is hiding a force in the Black Mountains and rushing out when our men are weary and our horses spent. Your servant-brother is willing to lead a force and search the entire Black Mountains!"

Yaoluoge Tongshun, Khagan Renyu's full younger brother, stood up and volunteered himself to Khagan Renyu.

The Hexi Corridor is a long, narrow passage hemmed in between the Qilian Mountains and other mountain ranges to the north.

To reach Ganzhou without taking the Hexi Corridor, apart from crossing several hundred li of the Badain Jaran Desert — from later-era Minqin County in Gansu to Liangzhou, and then on to Ganzhou — there was simply no second route by which a large army could pass.

In other words, if the Guiyi Army wanted to strike Ganzhou, it could only grind its way along the Hexi Corridor, city by city.

Otherwise it would have to go around the Badain Jaran Desert, which, given the Guiyi Army's horses, livestock, and population, was utterly impossible to accomplish.

Even in the most extreme case, even if it could be done, it would take no less than a month to complete, and after that the Wenmo and Tangut north of Liangzhou would not lightly let them pass. By the time all that was settled, the daylilies would have gone cold.

Khagan Renyu knew this point deeply, so he had no worry at all about being outflanked or having his supply lines cut; it was only instinct that made him feel something was not quite right — an unconscious caution.

"Khagan, the total number of sons of Tang in Guazhou and Shazhou is no more than a hundred and some tens of thousands. In years of fighting with us, they have fielded at most three to five thousand troops; six or seven thousand would already count as emptying the nest.

Now at the river bend there are at least four or five thousand troops — one could say the entire family fortune of the Cao house is right here.

If we can take them in a single battle, Guazhou and Shazhou will fall easily into our grasp. If we let them go, who knows what year or month we will get such an opportunity again?"

After all, no matter how stupid the Cao brothers are, they wouldn't make the same mistake again and again!"

The Left Grand Yabghu had spoken what was on the mind of Khagan Renge and all the Ganzhou Uyghurs.

The Guiyi Army across the river bend was indeed somewhat abnormal, but the temptation for the Ganzhou Uyghurs was exceptionally great. They had fought and killed each other for decades and knew each other's strengths and weaknesses very well.

If they could annihilate these five qian of troops, the Guiyi Army and the Cao family could be erased from the land of Hexi.

"Tongshun, take five hundred roving scouts and search the entire Black Mountain. Also sweep the Jinta Mountain to the north. You must make certain there is no ambush!"

Yaoluoge Tongshun knelt on one knee in excitement and accepted the military order.

"Left Grand Yabghu, immediately organize the Long family inside Suzhou and have them lead the assault. I want to attack day and night and take the Shazhou Han across from us!"

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