Chapter 273: In the End, a Man Must Still Have Some Bottom Line

The fierce exchange of fire was still going on, yet a duel between crossbowmen of only five hundred on each side was so brutal that it made Khagan Renyu's back run cold.

The flying bolts kept punching through the chests and bellies of armored men on both sides. Even three layers of armor could not save a man from taking several hits, to say nothing of the crossbowmen themselves, who never wore very thick armor in the first place.

Of course, this was also determined by the special terrain. Had it not been this river bend, full of rocks and ill-suited to running, but rather an ordinary plain or mountain slope,

crossbowmen facing an enemy would get off no more than two or three shots before the foe was already upon their lines, so there would naturally be no talk of exchanging fire. But here, the cruelty and ruthlessness of the crossbow bolt was magnified countless times over.

Gradually, the Guiyi Army's Divine Arm crossbowmen gained the absolute upper hand. Although they numbered only about forty percent of the enemy, the Divine Arm crossbow could be spanned more than three times faster than the horn bow crossbow, and spanning it was far easier as well.

Under this storm of bolts, the four hundred Uyghur Left Camp crossbowmen lost an astonishing one hundred men in less than a quarter hour.

At first they still dared to trade shots with the Guiyi Army's Divine Arm crossbowmen, but later, the crossbowmen advanced more and more slowly.

At last, when some of the crossbowmen could no longer bear the terror of stepping forward to die, the Left Camp crossbowmen collapsed as a whole. Not even the officers tried to stop them, because there was no stopping them — the officer himself wanted to run too.

Khagan Renyu's heart was bleeding, and at last fury clouded the mind of this Uyghur Khagan.

These horn bow crossbows were extremely precious to the Ganzhou Uyghurs, who had little manufacturing capacity of their own. If he could not take the Guiyi Army across from him, this loss alone would be enough to send his prestige crashing down.

"Qiang!" Khagan Renyu drew the long sword at his waist. "Beat the drums, advance! The left and right chiliarchs of the imperial tent shall be the spearhead — attack!"

The Left Grand Yabghu wanted to counsel restraint at this moment, but everyone else on the battlefield had collectively fallen into a frenzy. Nine thousand men against fewer than five thousand on the other side — even in a fight on foot, the advantage was obvious.

What was more, the Guiyi Army and the Ganzhou Uyghurs had been enemies for over a hundred years, especially in the last twenty.

First, twenty years ago, the Ganzhou Uyghurs had marched to the walls of Dunhuang and forced Zhang Chengfeng to acknowledge the Ganzhou Uyghur Khagan Renmei as his father.

Then, ten years ago, after ten years of rebuilding, Cao Yijin conscripted every able-bodied man of the Guiyi Army, assembled a great host of eight thousand, and broke through Ganzhou in a single stroke.

He drove the then Khagan of the Ganzhou Uyghurs, Diyin, to his death, and installed Aduoyu, who was willing to marry Cao Yijin's daughter, as Khagan.

The hatred between the two sides truly could not be fully told in ten days and ten nights. Once Khagan Renyu ordered the whole army to attack, the fighting at the river bend went directly from the earlier probing exchange of bolts and the clearing of the Guiyi Army's stone walls into a savage melee.

The gray-black masses of the two sides slammed into each other, and great and small formations locked together in slaughter from the very first moment, just as they had twenty years before, and ten years before.

Fifteen li north of the battlefield, the walls of Suzhou were already faintly visible. This was a narrow strip of flatland between Jinta Mountain and the city of Suzhou.

In the past, this place should have been a scene of busy farm work. About forty percent of Suzhou's spring wheat came from this narrow plain. Jinta Mountain blocked the cold air from the south, and the North Great River brought ample irrigation water.

But now, this fertile plain lay in deathly silence. The land that had just been prepared showed not the slightest sign of planting. The moment Zhang Zhao led his troops here, he was stunned by the sight before his eyes.

A small village at the northernmost edge of the flatland had been completely destroyed. At least seventy or eighty houses had been wrecked.

On the road lay countless corpses in every direction, all of them farmers dressed in coarse hemp clothing.

As for the farm women and the others, Zhang Zhao only heard Bai Congxin roar "Beasts!" before he burst out of the largest house.

"Commander, it is too horrible! Those Ganzhou beasts murdered the women after violating them. In that one big house alone there are at least forty corpses!"

"Commander, the water in the well can't be drunk. No one knows how many children's bodies are floating in it." Ma Shacai, who had gone ahead to scout, also rode back, his face ashen.

Rage exploded in Zhang Zhao's heart. Killing in war was normal. Even retaliatory slaughter was considered normal in this age. But this kind of brutal killing purely for bestial lust could never be tolerated.

"A man born between heaven and earth does some things and does not do others. You must all remember this: the sons of the Guiyi Army may be arrogant, may be domineering, may even be ruthless — but they may not become beasts!"

Zhang Zhao pointed at those large houses. "Guo Guangcheng, take the soldiers of your company and remain here. Dig a big pit and bury them all!"

With that, Zhang Zhao roared, "Xinzhang, Cunhui, Liecheng — each of you take one jiang of cavalry and pursue! If a single Ganzhou beast escapes, I will hold you accountable!"

Murong Xinzhang answered loudly with fury in his eyes, and for the first time did not mind Zhang Zhao calling him "Xinzhang." Only the "I respectfully obey Father's military order" from Zhang Liecheng beside him made him feel somewhat awkward.

"The whole army will lead their horses on foot until the beginning of the shen hour. After eating and drinking your fill, we will smash those Ganzhou Xianyun!"

"Ding! Ding! Ding!" The harsh sound of the gongs rang out. It was three quarters past the shen hour. The Ganzhou Uyghurs had spent one day clearing away the stone walls and stockade gate the Guiyi Army had built, and then two more days making probing attacks.

Only on the fourth day, after truly discovering no ambush or hidden trick from the Guiyi Army, did the Ganzhou Uyghurs begin their great assault.

Yesterday, the two sides fought from sunrise to sunset, each paying with over a hundred lives.

And on this even fiercer day, the two sides had already fought six engagements in the space of a little over half a day, only now pausing briefly because the shen hour had arrived.

The shen hour is three to five in the afternoon. In this age, when people ate only two meals a day, it was called the "feeding hour" — the time for the second meal.

They had already fought six engagements today. The Ganzhou Uyghur armored soldiers, who had fought six rounds in armor weighing several dozen jin, were all somewhat exhausted.

So Khagan Renyu hurriedly sounded the gongs, and prepared the highest-calorie food — stewed fatty mutton and griddle cakes fried in mutton fat — to restore these armored soldiers' strength.

Khagan Renyu was very accustomed to fighting several engagements in a single day.

In battles between the Ganzhou Uyghurs and the Guiyi Army, there had never been a time when one side could knock the other flat in a single surge, because both sides were hard bones — poor and fierce.

Especially in the Battle of Dunhuang twenty years ago, the two sides fought from north of Dunhuang to the west, and finally to the east, fighting continuously for five days, more than twenty engagements in all.

Only after the great general of the Guiyi Army, Zhang Anzuo, Escort Officer of the Left Divine Strategy, fell in battle did the outcome become clear.

"Khagan, those Shazhou rebel curs are doomed! We are finally going to smash them!"

The Left Grand Yabghu came forward, his face full of excitement. Although in these six engagements their own casualties had been heavier, they had still gained the upper hand by weight of numbers.

More importantly, they had Suzhou here to provide a steady stream of supplies — especially cheese rice, stewed mutton, and mutton-fat griddle cakes, all piping hot, which let the armored soldiers recover their strength quickly.

But on the Guiyi Army's side, because of the earlier "mistake," after their rear line was cut they could not get firewood from Black Mountain in time, so that now hardly any cooking smoke rose from their camp.

The Left Grand Yabghu had just risked a close approach to observe: the Guiyi Army soldiers were all gnawing on dried meat strips and dry flatbread.

One must not underestimate this difference in food. The energy consumed by armored soldiers fighting in several dozen jin of heavy armor simply could not be replenished by a little dried meat and dry flatbread.

For the first time, a look of delight appeared on Khagan Renyu's face. His view was the same as the Left Grand Yabghu's: the gap was not visible now, but after a few more engagements it would show.

"Let the warriors eat their fill. Today we will fight the Shazhou rebel curs one more round, and tomorrow we will strike even harder, until we smash them completely. I want not one of them to escape."

Khagan Renyu roared, his eyebrows practically flying up in delight.

If he smashed the Shazhou rebel curs across from him, he could occupy the two prefectures of Gua and Sha. The next step would be to send a marriage envoy to the Great Tang and seek the hand of a Great Tang Emperor's princess. He would also have every member of the Yagluo clan change their surname to Li.

Then he would be Li Renyu. After another ten years of rebuilding, his next target would be the Gaochang Khanate of the Pugu clan.

Hah! The Yagluo clan were the true royal clan of the Uyghurs. The Pugu clan were nothing but dogs of the Yagluo clan — how dare they call themselves Great Khans!

After swallowing the Gaochang Uyghurs, it would be the turn of the descendants of Pang Tegin, whom his own ancestors had defeated. He had heard that these distant kinsmen had built a mighty khanate in Anxi.

If he could bring them back into the fold, perhaps by the age of fifty he could become the true Khagan of all Uyghurs. By then...

"Khagan! Look — what is that? Why have the Shazhou rebel curs raised so many banners?"

Khagan Renyu narrowed his eyes in displeasure. He had been in the middle of a fine dream, and being interrupted like that was truly unpleasant. He looked in the direction his nephew Yagluo Siyi was pointing.

Hm? That is a bit strange. Why would these Shazhou bandits raise so many red flags in their formation? It almost looks like they're signaling someone.

Signaling? The ever-cautious Khagan Renyu was taken aback. It seemed he had not heard back from the scouts his fourth brother Yaoluoge Tongshun had sent for a long while.

Yaoluoge Tongshun's five hundred riders were the roving patrol cavalry on outer guard. Surely he wouldn't dare run off somewhere to amuse himself at a time like this?

Just then, the sound of hoofbeats suddenly rang out, growing from distant to near, ever more distinct.

Everyone around raised their heads and looked about. The hairs on Khagan Renyu's body stood on end. He immediately ran up the high platform built by the riverbank to see for himself, while at the same time the urgent blare of ox-horn alarms sounded from the walls of Suzhou.

The hoofbeats drew nearer and nearer, and Khagan Renyu finally made out the direction they were coming from. He looked north of Suzhou, and about three or four li away, a sky-covering mass of cavalry flying the striking Three Stars banners came howling toward the river bend.

At the very front, Khagan Renyu spotted his younger brother Yaoluoge Tongshun. Tongshun was fleeing in utter disarray at the head of several dozen riders, and behind them a young general in a white robe pressed the pursuit relentlessly.

In the dim yellow light of the setting sun, the white robe on the young general seemed plated with a layer of gold. Using the instant his horse rose and fell, he loosed arrows in rapid succession, continually shooting the riders around Tongshun to the ground.

Almost at the same moment, three drumbeats sounded from the Guiyi Army camp at the river bend. Company after company of armored soldiers in black armor poured out past the palisade and began closing in on the Uyghurs.

Only then did Khagan Renyu understand why they had been gnawing dried meat strips and eating dry flatbread just now — it was so they could come out and fight at a moment's notice.

Meanwhile his own armored soldiers had already stripped off their armor and were blissfully enjoying greasy mutton soup.

"Quick! Armor on! Everyone, armor on! Fall back to the walls of Suzhou! The five hundred riders of the Yeheluo tribe, go left and intercept them!" The frantic Khagan Renyu practically tumbled off the high platform.

He ran and shouted as he went. Though he did not know where those cavalry had come from, he knew that if they could not withstand this thunderbolt strike from the enemy, they were finished.

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