Chapter 375: Death Without Turning Back at White Salt Lake

"Eyes down, watch your feet. Motherfucker, if your mind wanders again, get ready to die right here!"

Just as Zhang Xiaobiao's thoughts were running wild, the burly Wang beside him bellowed in his ear.

The burly man was their fire leader, and that roar, like a thunderclap, slammed Zhang Xiaobiao's drifting soul back into his body.

It was only then that Zhang Xiaobiao noticed nearly half the crossbowmen in front of their square were already gone.

But not many lay motionless on the ground; most had been dragged to the rear by the laborers risking their lives.

After all, the crossbowmen who could hold the front line mostly wore iron armor, so they were not so easily killed.

The crossbowmen were still advancing, because crossbow bolts outranged arrows, so they had to close the distance to let the archers behind them reach the enemy.

Moreover, crossbowmen generally wore heavy armor, making them far better at absorbing punishment than archers.

"Ha! The Dingnan Army curs can't hold! They're putting up their pengpai shields! All men, draw bows, ready!"

The burly Wang suddenly roared, and Zhang Xiaobiao looked up to see that the Dingnan Army's crossbowmen opposite could no longer endure the brutal exchange of fire and were scattering in droves.

And after they scattered, dozens of pengpai shields were raised, hoping to block the Guiyi Army's bolts.

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At this time, pengpai shields capable of stopping crossbow bolts were extremely precious, because such a large piece of iron plate plus oxhide, with wood planks or other materials added, cost no small amount to make.

Therefore in the Tang dynasty, pengpai shields were among the equipment forbidden to be buried with the dead.

Seeing the pengpai shields raised across the way, the Guiyi Army's morale visibly soared.

In the eyes of the soldiers at this moment, raising pengpai shields meant admitting defeat, backing down.

Thus during the Tang and Five Dynasties period, pengpai shields saw very little use; the only place they appeared in large numbers was in urban street fighting and search operations.

By now, battle cries filled the sky over the battlefield stretching two or three li in every direction, and the soldiers and junior officers could only hear the drums in broken bursts; as for flag signals, no one could pay them any attention at all.

The commander's direction had also begun to grow difficult at this point. Around Zhang Zhao, standing on the hillock, countless messengers with all manner of conspicuous banners on their backs darted about like busy bees, racing to deliver orders in every direction.

But a messenger's delivery always lagged, and words could also be momentarily misunderstood in transmission.

So at this moment, the most important men in the whole army were the low-ranking officers at the level of Captain, squad general, file leader, and fire leader.

In an army, if the junior officers could show initiative at a time like this, they could seize many fleeting opportunities.

You seize a little, he seizes a little, and the accumulation of small gains becomes the foundation of victory.

For example, at this moment, Fan Shun at the very front had keenly detected the Dingnan Army's weakness.

At his shouted command, the crossbowmen of the Left Third and Left Fourth units set down their crossbows without hesitation and took up infantry lances.

Two squads totaling one hundred shock troops, bearing iron hammers and great axes, were also summoned forward by him.

"Your fucking job is to charge up and smash those curs' pengpai shields to splinters. Once you break in, don't stop — keep cutting all the way through to the rear. Only when half your men are dead are you allowed to pull back. When that happens, I'll put you in for commendation: one turn of merit for every half of the men.

But if you fall back before half your men are dead, I'll not only have the silver-blade officer cut you down on the spot, when we get back to Liangzhou I'll cut down your father and mother myself!"

Fan Shun grabbed the shock troops' squad general and roared. The squad general knocked Fan Shun's hand away, and with gnashing teeth and fierce light in his eyes, he glared at Fan Shun and shouted.

"I know that! Today I'll let the Captain see the ferocity of my lads. If we can't break through the enemy square, we won't retreat even if every last man dies!"

With that, the squad general looked at the fire leader beside him, who wore cotton armor with ring-mail underneath.

"Zhang Dalang, your fire will charge at the very front for me. Break through the enemy square, and when I get back I'll marry my daughter to your son. Fail to break through, and you'll be the first to die — I'll be right behind you."

Zhang Dalang grabbed the squad general's hand. "Those are the squad general's own words!"

"When have I ever gone back on my word?" The squad general glared, then hurriedly put on his helmet.

Zhang Dalang's grin stretched from ear to ear as he looked at the soldiers under his command.

"You death-deserving curs, come die with your old man! Those who fall in battle leave wealth and honor to their parents; those who live win wealth and honor for themselves!"

"We go with the fire leader! We go!" The shock troops chosen to lead the charge, clad in heavy armor, shouted back in a jumble of voices.

It was plain that Zhang Dalang usually commanded both respect and affection among his soldiers; even facing near-certain death, the men followed him willingly.

At that moment, the squad general's personal attendant came over and opened a large leather sack filled with fine purple wine. After each man drank a few mouthfuls, Zhang Dalang led them charging forward with a howl.

This seemed to take a long time, but in truth only twenty-odd breaths had passed.

Once the hundred-odd shock troops had surged forward, Fan Shun himself took up an infantry lance and began accelerating forward with the crossbowmen.

Zhang Xiaobiao seemed to hear his father's voice, and he could not help standing on tiptoe to try to see ahead.

With a smack, the burly Wang struck him on the head with the flat of his saber scabbard.

"Move again, and I'll kill you myself!"

At that very moment, battle cries shook the heavens as the hundred-odd shock troops, braving the long spears thrust out from the Dingnan Army's pengpai shields, slammed straight into them.

Iron hammers and great axes — weapons ideal for breaking armor and close combat — hacked away furiously, and in an instant a breach was cut in the enemy's pengpai wall.

The moment they saw the breach, these armored warriors threw themselves into it without regard for their lives, and the screams grew ever more harrowing.

Though Fan Shun could not see what was happening inside, the ripple-like shudder running through the Dingnan Army's formation told him they had surely been caught completely off guard.

Next, the Dingnan Army's pengpai bearers toppled to the ground one after another, scattered by the shock troops.

And the shock troops who had charged in were themselves constantly being hooked by ropes or hooked spears and dragged to the ground by the Dingnan Army.

"Charge!" Fan Shun roared, and the armored soldiers behind him with infantry lances swiftly followed; their task was to widen the breach once the shock troops had opened it.

And as the Dingnan Army's pengpai bearers fell, the Captain commanding the archers could now see inside the Dingnan square: a great mass of heavy infantry drawn up in formation, holding long spears and waiting.

This was a once-in-a-thousand-years opportunity!

"Draw bows! Five rounds rapid fire!" the Captain bellowed, and at once the hundreds of archers in the nearest squares swiftly drew arrows from their quivers.

"Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo!" As they drew their arrows, the archers clamored, howling like apes.

Amid those cries, the fear of death and the tension of the battlefield instantly eased a great deal.

Twang! An arrow with long white tail feathers flew out first — a ranging arrow shot by a file leader to mark the area the volley would cover.

By military law, within one breath of the file leader's ranging arrow, every archer had to loose his arrow; any who hesitated would be executed on the spot.

So upon hearing the ranging arrow and seeing the long white tail feathers, almost by reflex, the longbows in the archers' hands shuddered violently, and the quivering arrows took flight, blotting out the sky as they sped toward the Dingnan Army.

"Woo-woo! Woo-woo!" The ape cries grew faster and faster, and the shooting grew faster and faster too.

The Dingnan Army's medium infantry were in trouble now. The Guiyi Army's arrows were heavy shafts loosed from powerful bows of eight dou to one dan draw weight.

Sharp or not, a lump of iron the size of a loquat, shot from a bow and falling down again, carried terrifying killing power.

Such a heavy arrow, slamming into the body, could make a man shudder with pain; striking a helmet, it could leave a man's ears ringing and his vision swimming.

If you had no iron armor, only leather or paper armor, then congratulations — a single heavy arrow might not kill you outright, but blood would spray, and you would not hold out for long.

Of course, the Dingnan Army, seeing the danger, began shooting back with strong bows and heavy arrows too, but they were one step slow at every turn. From the moment their crossbowmen could no longer bear the casualties and raised their large shields, the Guiyi Army seized the initiative step by step, and the two sides fought closer and closer.

The Dingnan Army had to split off men to deal with the Guiyi Army's leaping skirmishers who had slipped inside, while at the same time trying desperately to hold formation and thrust with long spears. For a time they were in dire straits, and the battle line kept shrinking backward.

Li Yiyin saw it all clearly from afar. Their Dingnan Army had too few heavy-armored infantry and simply could not compare with the Guiyi Army. But Li Yiyin also saw the flaw in Zhang Zhao's great fan-shaped formation.

Namely, although the commander stood behind the formation, where he could direct better and spread the troops facing the enemy wider, the danger to the commander himself was doubled.

Because a fan-shaped formation, wide at the front and narrow at the rear, meant too few troops guarding the commander's surroundings. Thinking of this, Li Yiyin steeled himself and summoned his great general Tuoba Chongde.

"I give you one thousand light-armored cavalry and two thousand horse archers. Ignore everything else and ride straight for the rebel commander. Cut down his central army's great banner, and this battle is won!"

Dust rose in the distance. Zhang Zhao, watching clearly from high ground, saw that it was obviously coming straight for him. But this opening was one Zhang Zhao had deliberately left.

Not that he had some excellent method for dealing with cavalry, but the Dingnan Army outnumbered him two to one. Zhang Zhao could only deploy such a fan-shaped formation to strengthen the numbers of troops at the front, so that he might have a chance of shattering the Dingnan Army with relatively light casualties.

Now that Li Yiyin had discovered this flaw, it all came down to whether Zhang Zhao could hold out!

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