Chapter 337: Punish the Tyrants and Console the People — This Is the Moment

"Sound the gongs and withdraw the troops" — this is actually not an easy thing to pull off. That kind of trash army would never dare try it on a battlefield, because it could very easily cause the whole army to scramble backward and collapse into rout.

And it is not as if you can withdraw just because you want to; the enemy has to agree as well.

For example, right now, Zhang Zhao had sounded the gongs, but He Chuan was not about to oblige. His yabing guards had just finished donning their armor, were fresh and waiting, and had not even begun to fight yet — how could he be willing to let the Guiyi Army break off the engagement?

At the front, the Guiyi Army soldiers who heard the gongs reacted very quickly. The officers beat on the metal plates on their chests and led the soldiers around them in pulling back.

With each beat they retreated one step, and even as they retreated, the long spears in their hands still struck at the enemy. At the same time, the archers behind, who had not yet made contact with the enemy, switched to heavy arrows and loosed wave after wave in high arcs into the distance, blocking the enemy troops from continuously pressing forward.

The enemy troops hit by the heavy arrows had two choices: one, keep charging fiercely forward and stick the two armies together; two, take out their own bows and shoot back. The rebel army chose the second.

As for why they did not charge fiercely forward — what a joke. The other side had sounded the gongs and withdrawn; today's share of fighting was already over!

I risked my life and fought until quitting time, and how much are you paying me? You still want me to keep charging forward and stake my life on it?

This is the difference between a strong army and a weak one. If the other side were also a Guiyi Army, they would certainly have charged fiercely forward and kept fighting; the two sides would never have been able to break contact.

But these were rebels, men thinking of rising in revolt, plundering wealth and women. They had no mind at all to charge forward.

These rebels chose to disengage. Those yabing guards who had finished donning their armor were blocked by them, and by the time they reached the front, the Guiyi Army had already retreated more than thirty paces.

A few fierce officers shoved aside the comrades retreating around them and still surged forward with several hundred yabing guards.

But they had run only a dozen or so paces when a heart-chilling wailing sound came through the air. The whirlwind catapults, which had just rested for a moment, hurled a volley of stones at them, and in an instant more than a dozen men were smashed to the ground.

That fierce rebel yabing officer took at least three stones and was nearly pounded into a pulp of mangled flesh.

He Chuan at the command position felt as if he had thrown a full-strength punch only to hit cotton. That suffocating sense of having no outlet for his strength made him unbearably miserable — and the even more miserable part was still to the west.

After the infantry withdrew, the fighting by Mapaoquan Village instead grew even fiercer.

Once Bai Congxin arrived with two thousand cavalry, Sun Xiaoguo's force, which had already been unable to hold on, became even more endangered. More than four thousand Guiyi Army cavalry were chasing and beating more than eight hundred rebel cavalry.

The two sides tangled outside Mapaoquan Village along the Wei River, twisting together like two great serpents locked around each other.

The pursuit formation stretched longer and longer, and now the Hexi men's natural talent for cavalry combat was being brought fully into play.

The Basmil knights, the Jingjiao knights, and the Dada Yueqi, led by Bai Congxin, Hu Guang, and Ashina Sili.

The cavalry made up mainly of Han soldiers of the Guiyi Army, led by Murong Xinzhang and Li Cunhui.

The Six Tribes elite cavalry made up mainly of the Six Tribes' finest warriors, led by Zhebu Jiashi and Dulun Chixin — all of them were supremely elite cavalry.

Sun Xiaoguo's face was covered in blood. He had just been struck on the helmet by an arrow from a young general in a white robe. The arrow's force was tremendous; fortunately it had not struck true, or the impact alone would have snapped his neck.

His only road to survival now was to flee into the main formation. It was only a few hundred paces away — there was still time!

"Quick! Crossbowmen, out of the formation! Every camp, round up all who can ride and shoot — everyone out! We must bring General Sun and his men back!"

He Chuan was desperate. If Sun Xiaoguo was lost, it would no longer be a question of victory or defeat — it would be a question of certain total annihilation.

This place was more than ten li from both the West Wei Bridge and Xingping County. Whichever way they retreated, they would need a certain amount of cavalry to cover them.

But no sooner had the rebel main formation's crossbowmen begun to move than the cry of camels — "ah-oh-oh-oh-oh" — rang out, and the Guiyi Army's whirlwind catapults also began to move.

So no matter how the officers urged them, these crossbowmen began to drag their feet. As for the two or three hundred cavalry left in the rebel main formation — let them go; it would not change anything anyway.

"Hahaha! The rebel general is mine!"

Sun Xiaoguo was just thinking he was about to escape with his life when, unbidden, a triumphant laugh sounded by his left ear. It was none other than that young general in the white robe who had shot his helmet.

"You come to snatch him again! Clearly I caught up first!"

An angry roar sounded by his right ear, and then Sun Xiaoguo took a vicious blow to the back of the head.

In a daze he looked to his right. A young general had just drawn back his long lance and was reaching out to seize him. It seemed he had just been struck on the back of the head by this young general's lance.

"Li Dalang, you are being unreasonable. Clearly I shot him first — otherwise could you have caught up?"

Murong Xinzhang glared at Li Cunhui, grabbed Sun Xiaoguo's left hand, and made to take Sun Xiaoguo away.

"Whoever shoots him gets him? What nonsense. If I had not rushed over first and struck him with my lance, how could he have been captured?"

Li Cunhui was angry too. Murong Xinzhang had always relied on being Commissioner Zhang's beloved son, getting advantages everywhere, and now he was trying to steal credit again.

'Hmph! When I get back, I'll have Father marry my beautiful aunt to Commissioner Zhang, and I'll become his adopted son too!' Li Cunhui thought, his face flushing red.

The two of them each tugged one of Sun Xiaoguo's arms and refused to yield. Poor General Sun, a capable mounted warrior in his own right, was now dizzy and powerless to resist, and was being fought over like an object by two teenage young generals.

At that moment, Hu Guang and Dulun Chixin also arrived. The two exchanged a glance and were delighted at the same time, each seeing the other's idea. So they hastily put away their long lances and drew their sabers.

"Ah! My hands!" The dazed and reeling Sun Xiaoguo let out a piercing shriek as excruciating pain shot through both arms.

It turned out both his hands had been chopped off — one saber stroke each from Hu Guang and Dulun Chixin.

After the scream, before Sun Xiaoguo could even fall, Hu Guang stretched out his long ape-like arm, wrapped it around Sun Xiaoguo's blood-drenched waist, and with a single heave lifted Sun Xiaoguo into his grasp. Not even minding the blood spurting onto his face, he howled in excitement.

"Haha! It is only right that I, Hu Guang, take this credit for capturing the general!"

"You slave-thief! I have a share in it too!"

Dulun Chixin was frantic. His hands were like claws as he seized Sun Xiaoguo's head, and two of his fingers even dug straight into Sun Xiaoguo's nostrils, straining with all his might to drag the armless body toward himself.

And so the two of them tugged and pulled, cursing as they headed toward Zhang Zhao, intending to ask Commissioner Zhang to judge the matter.

Murong Xinzhang stood stunned for a moment, barely reacting to the fact that he had been robbed of his prize!

Looking at the severed arm in his hand, Murong Xinzhang's young-master temper flared, and he flung the arm to the ground.

"It's all your fault! Hmph! I'm going to find the lord and have him judge!"

"Go then, who's afraid of you! My grand-uncle won't necessarily side with you!"

Li Cunhui also threw Sun Xiaoguo's right hand to the ground and spurred his horse after Murong Xinzhang.

At that moment, looking at the two arms thrown on the ground, the two unlucky fellows Wen Chongle and Yue Saonu exchanged a glance, grinning as they picked up the arms and also went off to claim credit from Zhang Zhao.

Eight hundred cavalry, almost completely annihilated. Sun Xiaoguo's armless body was carried past before the eyes of thousands of rebel soldiers as the two men fought over it.

Sun Xiaoguo's hair hung loose, his wailing shook the heavens, and blood gushed from the two stumps of his arms, splattering the muddy ground. A moment later, five or six more Guiyi Army cavalry officers went galloping off into the distance, cursing and bickering noisily.

He Chuan's eyes nearly split with rage. It was as if he were watching his own fate. The remaining rebel soldiers' faces turned deathly pale, as if struck by lightning, and their morale plummeted.

Zhang Zhao did not know whether to laugh or cry as he looked at these six fellows — especially the scavengers Wen Chongle and Yue Saonu, shamelessly putting on martial, triumphant airs.

Murong Xinzhang was so angry his face had turned red, but for all his shouting just now, once he reached Zhang Zhao he did not dare speak recklessly. Li Cunhui was also relatively quiet.

Only Hu Guang and Du Lun Chixin were left, one grabbing Sun Xiaoguo's head and the other pulling at his waist, neither willing to yield.

What was worse, Sun Xiaoguo was not yet dead, and to the steady drip of his blood he was cursing and groaning.

Zhang Zhao thought for a moment. "Murong Xinzhang and Li Cunhui took the merit of beheading a general — a lower-formation upper capture, three turns of merit. Hu Guang and Du Lun Chixin — a lower-formation middle capture, two turns of merit."

Having said this, Zhang Zhao glanced at Wen Chongle and Yue Saonu, who were staring at him with eager eyes.

"Wen Chongle and Yue Saonu — a lower-formation lower capture, one turn of merit!"

The Guiyi Army still used the Tang dynasty military merit rank system: twelve turns of military merit, and one turn earned the rank of Martial Cavalry Commandant, equivalent to a lower seventh-rank official.

At once everyone was delighted, and the second most important part of Zhang Zhao's work — smoothing things over — was complete.

"Tie this wretch behind a horse and drag him three times around the enemy lines to overawe them!" Zhang Zhao then pointed at Sun Xiaoguo with disgust.

Han Qiniangzi was brewing a decoction to relieve heatstroke, but her eyes kept darting toward the enemy formation across the way.

These past days she had been asking familiar officers to search for her husband. The bad news was that he had not been found; the good news was also that he had not been found — at least it proved he was most likely still alive.

"Commissioner, the firewood is running short!" A woman of some beauty came before Han Qiniangzi and said.

This woman had been rescued by the great army below Qianzhou. Having nowhere to go, she had followed the army and become a medic who tended the wounded and brewed medicinal decoctions.

Every time she saw this woman, Han Qiniangzi's admiration for Zhang Zhao grew a little more. That a woman of some beauty could remain unharmed in the army, with scarcely even any harassment, was rare since ancient times.

"How can the firewood be running short? Wasn't there plenty just now?" Han Qiniangzi steadied herself and asked, puzzled.

"The cooks carried it all off. It's nearly feeding time, and the great army has fought half the day without eating yet!" the woman said softly. Suddenly she let out an "Eh?" and stood up.

Han Qiniangzi also looked in the direction the woman was looking, and the people around them likewise rose to their feet.

Several officers responsible for security here began shouting and forming up in battle order, but they soon lowered their swords and blades.

For what came from afar was no army at all, but farmers covering the hills and fields, with some Guiyi Army cavalry leading the way. Carrying baskets of food and jars of drink, bearing provisions on their backs, they came rolling in from the distance.

By the time Zhang Zhao got word and hurried over, no fewer than three or four thousand common folk had gathered at his rear camp.

Few of these common folk had whole clothing. Though they did not have the look of starvation, they all seemed to have suffered calamity, and many wore mourning, clearly having lost family to the ravages of war.

"Elders of Xingping and Xianyang counties have come to comfort the heavenly troops! We beg the heavenly troops to avenge us!"

"Officer! The bandit soldiers killed my father and brother and carried off my sister! I beg you, officer, to slay those brigands!"

"Which one is Minister Zhang? I have some rough learning and wish to join the army as a secretary, if only to kill the rebels!"

Seeing Zhang Zhao arrive, the common folk who had come from Xingping and Xianyang counties knelt with a great rustling sound, weeping and wailing to heaven and earth.

They held up winnowing baskets filled with flatbread and clay jars filled with broth; the better-off carried a small basket of eggs or clutched two chickens.

The lad who had wailed that the bandits killed his father and brother had nothing left on his body but a pair of ragged trousers, yet in his hand he still carried two small fish strung on a willow branch.

Zhang Zhao hastily dismounted, helped the foremost elders to their feet, then reached out behind him in a gesture of raising the rest.

"Rise, all you good neighbors! I, Zhang Erlang, am a man of Chang'an myself. My great-grandfather, Grand Guardian Zhang of Hexi, lies buried right in Xianyang!"

Saying this, Zhang Zhao sighed with deep self-reproach. "I only regret that I came too late and could not keep our neighbors safe. This is my fault. But rest assured, good neighbors — we sons of the Guiyi Army will make the rebel troops pay blood for blood!"

Zhang Zhao's claim to be a man of Chang'an was not without basis. After Zhang Yichao entered the court, he spent his later years in comfort in Chang'an.

After his death, he chose neither to be buried back in Dunhuang nor in his ancestral home of Nanyang, but was buried directly in Xianyang. So Zhang Zhao could indeed count as half a man of Chang'an.

When the village elders who had come heard Zhang Zhao say this, tears streamed down at once. Fellow townsmen meeting fellow townsmen, eyes brimming with tears — so it has been in all later ages, let alone in this era, when ties of native place were the strongest bond of all.

"It is only right that we men of Guanzhong look after our village elders. We ought to have gathered all the army's needs, but alas, the rebel troops passed through, and we truly cannot produce much. A little coarse flatbread and broth — we beg the Minister to accept it with a smile!"

As he spoke, the village elder nearest Zhang Zhao suddenly covered his face with his hand. "This is truly shameful!"

When the elder finished, the thousands of villagers on the hillside raised the food in their hands, and wave after wave of cries rose up, all begging the Minister to accept.

They had come to comfort the army not only because Zhang Zhao had a bond of old incense with Chang'an, but also because some time ago, when the Guiyi Army raided the rebels' grain requisition teams, they had rescued thousands of local men and women and returned over a thousand shi of grain along with some goods and valuables.

Compared with the rebel troops, the Guiyi Army's conduct was immeasurably better, which was why these villagers felt the Guiyi Army could be trusted and relied upon, and why they chose to come and comfort the troops.

Han Qiniangzi's eyes sparkled. Watching the countless villagers below the hillside, people of the same station as herself, the eight characters "baskets of food and jars of drink to welcome the royal army" rose naturally in her heart.

Yan Jin, Bai Congxin, Murong Xinzhang, and the others followed behind Zhang Zhao, each face glowing with a pride that showed from within.

The surrounding Guiyi Army soldiers, even the conscripted Tangut men, all wore expressions of shared honor.

By both feeling and reason, Zhang Zhao should accept these coarse flatbreads and broth, but he truly could not bring himself to take them.

Xingping and Xianyang counties had been plundered back and forth by the rebel troops; many people were utterly destitute, and likely had nothing left at home but the bit of coarse flatbread in their hands.

But if he refused, he would surely wound their hearts, and they would think Zhang Zhao looked down on them.

After thinking for a while, Zhang Zhao stepped forward again. "Good neighbors, I am not short of army provisions for the moment, but I do lack firewood for cooking, and I also lack some medicines. The wounded also have too few people to tend them. So keep your food.

I would ask you elders to gather some dry firewood, and the wealthier households among you, please donate the appropriate medicines.

In this battle I have several hundred young men wounded. If any of you neighbors have spare beds at home and can help me take the wounded back and care for them carefully, I would be endlessly grateful."

"The Minister is benevolent!" The village elder before Zhang Zhao knelt to him again.

"Rest assured, Minister — firewood and medicines will be sent at once, and we will immediately arrange people to tend the several hundred wounded young men."

"I have one more matter. After the battle, there will surely be a great many rebel corpses left here. To prevent the outbreak of disease, I ask you elders to arrange for people to gather them together and burn them.

There may also be a few fish that slip through the net. I ask the elders to gather some able-bodied young men and set up checkpoints everywhere to intercept them — let not a single one escape!"

"We dare not but obey!" Hundreds answered in a thunderous roar, and people farther away were still kowtowing to Zhang Zhao, shouting "The Minister is benevolent!"

After comforting the elders a little, Zhang Zhao pulled Guo Tiance aside and instructed: "Carefully calculate what the great army needs. If there is surplus, set aside a few hundred shi of millet. For any who come with firewood and are poor, keep them for a meal and give them some more."

Having said this, Zhang Zhao looked at Han Qiniangzi again. "Lady Han, please brew the heat-relieving decoction quickly. Do not let my brave men fall ill with heatstroke!"

"Rest easy, Minister. My Han family's secret formula can absolutely relieve the army's summer heat. Even if I must go without sleep or rest, I will brew it!"

Zhang Zhao pursed his lips, a little puzzled. Why was Han Qiniangzi so strangely excited?

After supper, as night fell, Zhang Zhao's mischief-making continued.

First he had men wash the bloodstains of livestock and people into the upper reaches of the river where the rebel troops were encamped, then he kept throwing rebel corpses downstream, so that the rebels had to wait a full one or two hours just to draw water.

Then in the first half of the night, Zhang Zhao had men bury fire mines not far away and set one off every so often. The Guiyi Army was used to the explosions and knew what they were; they would wake briefly and go back to sleep. But the rebels, startled awake by the blasts, would often be thrown into chaos for a long while.

In the second half of the night, he sent out small numbers of light cavalry armed with pear-blossom lances to gallop ceaselessly around the rebel camp, harassing them continuously with the sound of hoofbeats and the gunpowder spurting from the lances, so that the rebels scarcely had a moment of peace.

And on this chaotic night, an expected guest arrived at Zhang Zhao's command tent. Zhang Zhao looked at the burly man with a large black mole on his chin and smiled contemptuously.

"Go back and tell your Defense Commissioner Wu: do not entertain such fanciful delusions. I have no need of his help. The brave warriors of the Guiyi Army under my command are peerless in valor — we can slay that wretch He Chuan ourselves.

But if he wishes to keep his life, let him safeguard those several thousand conscripted laborers and women for me. Your crimes are grave indeed; if you can save these several thousand people, you may yet earn forgiveness!"

The next morning, before the hour of chen (7 a. m.) had arrived, the rebel troops, who had endured a sleepless night, had only just lain down for an hour or two. Every unit was still urging the captured laborers and cooks to prepare the morning meal — but the Guiyi Army had already completed all its preparations.

Their meal had been cooked long ago, with over a thousand common folk spontaneously helping, so Zhang Zhao had not needed to concern himself with it at all.

At the first quarter of the hour of chen, before the rebels' rice was even cooked, the Guiyi Army had already formed its battle array. In all, more than eight thousand troops — cavalry on both wings, infantry in the center, and the elite troops at the very core — slowly pressed toward the enemy.

This time it was truly a decisive battle, because Zhang Zhao's Hanshan Du personal guard stood at the very center of the great formation.

Fierce generals such as Man Xiong, Dunzhu, Wang Tongxin, Fan Shun, and Qiongre Duojin were all there as well, the modao glaive glaive glaives in their hands gleaming bright — the most eye-catching sight of all.

Among the rebels, He Chuan, who had racked his brains all night without finding any way to escape, could only force himself to rally his spirits. After making his soldiers, who had not yet eaten breakfast, gnaw a few flatbreads, he swiftly formed them into ranks as well.

The previous night he had also sent men over to beg Zhang Zhao for his life, but three successive groups had gone, and not one had returned.

"Drag that wretch Sun Xiaoguo over here!" Zhang Zhao roared.

This Sun Xiaoguo truly had a tenacious hold on life. Both arms had been hacked off, he had been dragged three full circles, and had received only the simplest treatment to stop the bleeding — yet even now, his chest still rose and fell faintly.

Astonishing!

Zhang Zhao drew the hengdao saber he had brought from the later age. With a light flick of his hand, he beheaded Sun Xiaoguo, who was held up by two soldiers, in a single stroke.

The dark head flew into the air, though only a few drops of blood sprayed from the neck — somewhat lacking in spectacle.

Zhang Zhao held the hengdao saber in his right hand, and with his left he smeared a handful of blood from Sun Xiaoguo's corpse, then wiped it across his own face. Three blood-red finger marks appeared between his eyes and nostrils.

Then he raised the hengdao saber high. The officers and guards around him drew their own blades, the standard-bearers raised countless great banners, and the soldiers shook the weapons in their hands. For a moment, cheers thundered.

"By imperial decree we chastise the rebels, comforting the people and punishing the guilty. Now that the great host has arrived, punishment must be meted out. I stand with you all, shoulder to shoulder, to break the foe! Beat the drums! Advance!"

Boom-boom-boom-boom! Every war drum of the Guiyi Army thundered at once. At this moment there was no need for command — one surge of spirit, and they would slaughter the rebel troops.

Amid the drumbeats, several thousand Guiyi Army soldiers moved with the rhythm, their steps so unified that ten thousand men seemed to move as one. All struck their chests with their right hands at the same moment and roared in unison.

"Kill the rebels!"

"Kill the rebels!"

"Kill the rebels!"

And across from them, whether ordinary rebel soldiers or the core yabing guards, from the lowliest soldier to He Chuan at the top, who styled himself Army Commissioner — every man's face was deathly pale, as though they had seen ghosts and demons.

At that moment, confused shouts came from the rebel rear. The conscripted laborers and women they had seized had somehow all fled.

But no one paid attention to such a trifle, for the great battle was about to erupt at any instant!

"Quick march! Three faults before the enemy! Hack the bastards!" The Guiyi Army's drums grew fierce. From battalion commanders down to squad leaders, every mouth shouted such orders.

In an instant! A skyful of arrows fell like flying snow!

A swath of Guiyi Army soldiers toppled, and a great swath of rebels toppled as well.

But the gaps where Guiyi Army soldiers fell were immediately filled by others pressing forward, while the gaps in the rebel ranks, after a moment of panic, only grew wider.

A second volley of arrows, a third volley of arrows, came one after another, throwing the rebels into even greater chaos.

With roar after roar, the rebels too formed a relatively orderly battle array, every man in iron armor. These were the yabing guards of the Zhangyi Army and Jingnan Army among the rebels — this whole upheaval was their doing.

They were precisely the ones the Guiyi Army's officers and men had come to kill!

Man Xiong, Dunzhu, Wang Tongxin, and the others all began breathing hard, as though they had laid eyes on the worthiest prey imaginable.

"Hack the bastards!" someone shouted, and the two sides — more than ten thousand men in all — slammed violently into each other. Without prior agreement, both had chosen the most brutal way of fighting.

But Zhang Zhao was even more aggressive. They skipped even the mutual thrusting of long spears. The first to emerge were the Guiyi Army's shock troops, wearing three layers of heavy armor and carrying iron-plated long shields. Without regard for life or death, they crashed through the gaps in the forest of spears, instantly smashing great breaches in the rebel formation.

Even the rebel yabing guards were stunned by this style of attack — but what terrified them even more was still to come.

Zhang Zhao's Hanshan Du was, astonishingly, a modao glaive glaive glaive unit. Those at the front were all bears and tigers of men, massive as mountains, wearing two layers of padded armor and one layer of ring-mail.

For a time, blade-light flashed like thunderbolts, and the enemy's severed limbs soared amid spurting blood and heaven-shaking screams. How exquisite.

Amid the boom! boom! of explosions, the Guiyi Army's spearmen thrust their pear-blossom spears through the gaps carved by the Hanshan Du modao glaive glaive unit, spraying dazzling fire.

When the pear-blossom spears' flames had blasted the enemy into terror and confusion, the spearmen followed with a round of stabbing. When the enemy recovered their wits, they sprayed gunpowder fire again, then stabbed again.

At the same time, Bai Congxin split the light cavalry into two detachments and drove them hard into the rebels' left and right flanks. The rebels had long since lost their own cavalry, and the horsemen, charging through and cutting them down again and again, sent them fleeing wildly in every direction.

In barely two quarters of an hour, the rebel outer ranks had utterly collapsed. Only some three thousand yabing guards in full armor huddled together on a small hillock, resisting desperately.

The men of the Hanshan Du attacked several times, but the enemy, knowing they would surely die, still fought with firm resolve. With their many crossbows, they looked on the verge of collapse, yet could not be broken into.

Just as He Chuan among the rebels let out a breath of relief, thinking that if the enemy attacked twice more and still could not break in, he would go out and negotiate surrender — the camel calls he loathed most sounded again.

Surprised? Delighted?

Zhang Zhao laughed heartily. I still have whirlwind catapults.

After only two volleys, the rebels scrambled desperately up the earthen slope. Some on the verge of collapse tried to kneel and surrender, but all were mercilessly crushed by the falling stones.

Still, there were two or three thousand of them, and the camel-drawn whirlwind catapults were running low on stones — eighty in all. After three full volleys, the rebels were still grimly holding on.

Zhang Zhao waved his hand again, and Li Ruotai appeared with four hundred armored cavalry. They had never had a chance to enter the fray — this was the moment they had been waiting for.

He Chuan let out a scream as the world spun around him. The Hexi Army actually had armored cavalry! In this situation, there was absolutely no holding them back!

Sure enough, Li Ruotai's three hundred armored riders were still only trotting when the rebel yabing guards collapsed with a roar. Every man threw off his armor and fled in all directions.

He Chuan raised his hengdao saber, about to slash his own throat.

"Hey, you rebel scum! You belong to your granddaddy!" The fine young lord on a white horse and in white robes came galloping from afar, and Li Cunhui came from the other direction as well. The two drew their bows at the same moment.

He Chuan, on the verge of suicide, took an arrow in each arm, and the hengdao saber in his hand clattered to the ground!

Farther away, on the mountainside, a dozen or so riders were observing this great battle. Among them, a burly man in a black round-collared robe muttered a few words to himself.

"The Hexi Army — truly a mighty force! I must return at once and report to the Grand Guardian!"

———Off-topic note———

Seven thousand characters, two chapters in one. But since the Tiger writes and posts as he goes, to be honest, I haven't thought out the next part at all! I'd wanted to add an extra chapter today, but I doubt I can get it written.

All chapters have been cached for you. Download the APP to view them.