Chapter 376: True to Loyalty and Righteousness

Zhang Zhao began putting on his golden helmet and golden armor. Qiong Reduojin glanced at Zhang Zhao hesitantly, then suddenly stripped off his own padded armor and shouted at the burly bear nearby.

"You dog-spawned bastard, get over here and help me arm!" With that, he looked at the three thousand Tangut cavalry beginning to pick up speed in the distance. A look of resolve hardened on Qiong Reduojin's face, and he turned back to Zhang Zhao.

"Great King, you bear the fate of the realm on your shoulders — you must not take such risks again. I am willing to wear the golden armor and draw the Tanguts' attention. I beg you to lead the picked troops and strike their rear, and break them in one blow!"

At this moment, Zhang Zhao had only two Hanshan Du personal guard units of six hundred men each beside him, though all of them were fierce officers — the burly bear, Dunzhu, and the others were all at his side.

This was also why Zhang Zhao had dared to let the Tangut cavalry come at him: he was confident he could hold.

But Qiong Reduojin did not see it that way. He felt Zhang Zhao could not be allowed to take the slightest risk, and since the Tangut cavalry was coming on fast and fierce, if he took two hundred men and absorbed the first wave of damage, finishing them off afterward would be much easier.

Zhang Zhao hesitated for a moment, and then the burly bear and Dunzhu stripped the golden armor off him and began putting it on Qiong Reduojin.

Zhang Zhao did not object. He simply patted Qiong Reduojin lightly on the shoulder, then began putting on Qiong Reduojin's padded armor himself.

Tuoba Chongde had very cunningly ridden a wide circle. It looked as though he was going to tangle with Murong Xinzhang and the others, but when he was more than halfway there, he suddenly accelerated and cut the circle, shaking off the Guiyi Army cavalry guarding against them.

At the same time, Li Yiyin threw the few reserves he had into the fight as well, and the pressure on the Guiyi Army's front suddenly surged.

On such a chaotic battlefield, everyone was busy dealing with the enemy in front of them, and not many people saw the Tangut cavalry circle around them and head for Zhang Zhao.

The three thousand Tangut cavalry came on fast. Zhang Zhao's position was on a small hillock beside the White Salt Lake.

Behind him lay the rippling blue waters of the lake; in front were salt pools of every size, which had also been deliberately dug out and could just barely serve as a trench.

Tuoba Chongde looked up. Zhang Zhao's personal guard was split into two groups, one of about two hundred men and the other of three or four hundred, forming a pincer formation and already prepared.

But the great banner marking the commander-in-chief, and Zhang Zhao's signature golden armor, were on the side with fewer men.

Tuoba Chongde thought for a moment and understood: the hillock on the smaller side was steeper, which made it easier to defend, but the space was limited — probably for that reason they could not station more men there.

Tuoba Chongde wasted no words. He pointed his long lance.

"The one in golden armor is the rebel King of Han! Kill this wretch and you will be rewarded with ten thousand in gold and enfeoffed as Prefect!"

A prefectship under the Dingnan Army was not like a prefectship under the Guiyi Army. A Dingnan Army prefect was a miniature Military Governor who held both civil and military authority.

The moment the reward was announced, the eyes of the Tangut cavalry following him went red. This was a chance to rise to the heavens in a single step!

Spurred by such an enormous reward, the pits in the salt pools, the fear of crippling their warhorses — none of it mattered anymore.

Amid earth-shaking roars of exultation, more than two thousand Tangut cavalry formed three ranks and charged straight at the hillock held by only two hundred men.

As for the other side, where the Guiyi Army had more men, only a few hundred were sent to make a token harassment. They did not even hesitate to expose their backs to the Guiyi Army on that side, clearly intent on capturing and killing Zhang Zhao in one furious push.

The hillock was said to be steeper, but that was only relative. The entire area around the White Salt Lake was flat open ground, so the hillock could not be all that steep — cavalry could still charge up it.

Arrows fell like rain. The frenzied Tangut cavalry surged across the salt pools of every size, and countless warhorses and riders went down screaming, staining the brine of the salt pools red.

What the Hanshan Du men held looked like bows, but they were actually Divine Arm crossbows, just like crossbows.

The power of the Divine Arm crossbow was such that even against armored riders, every shot brought an iron-clad horse down at the twang of the string — let alone against these three thousand Tangut cavalry, fewer than half of whom had any armor at all.

On top of that, the Hanshan Du warriors were all fierce men of superb archery, and in an instant the Tangut cavalry's casualties were driven to the maximum.

Tuoba Chongde was using a stepped assault method: every two hundred cavalry formed one shock unit. Those two hundred charged straight in with cavalry lances and cavalry spears, while those behind slowed and began loosing arrows.

Once the two hundred in front could no longer press forward, the archers behind would accelerate and charge up, while those who had fallen back would reform their ranks — thus ensuring an unbroken rhythm of charges.

This tactic suited cavalry attacking infantry with superior numbers. The endless, seemingly boundless charges were the best way to crush infantry morale, and few infantrymen could endure that feeling of despair under such continuous charges.

But the Hanshan Du armored soldiers they faced were no pushovers either. The officers among these bear-and-tiger warriors were almost all old brothers who had once roamed the Western Regions with Zhang Zhao.

When it came to loyalty to Zhang Zhao and blind adoration of him, no one could compare with them.

Though they numbered only six hundred, they had a hundred Divine Arm crossbows, and they were in a pincer formation, with crossbow bolts flying in from both front and rear. That psychological advantage made their resolve all the firmer.

"Up!"

"They're crashing in! They're about to crash in!"

Amid the frantic shouts, the two hundred Hanshan Du armored soldiers formed up — one row crouching and gripping the butt ends of their long spears, one row standing and gripping the spears two-thirds of the way up.

A forest of one hundred and fifty long spears sprang up at once, while the remaining fifty men kept shooting arrows without pause.

The Tangut cavalry facing them had no armor on their horses, but the men themselves were armored. Though they saw the forest of spears and their horses whinnied and slowed, they still crashed in under the feverish atmosphere and the riders' merciless commands.

At once, the Hanshan Du spear forest shuddered. The front rank was immediately caved inward, but the formation did not collapse — the warhorses, driven forward by force, were not moving fast.

The Hanshan Du soldiers seized this rare chance to counterattack. The warhorses that crashed in were hammered to death by Qiong Reduojin and a dozen men wielding iron maces, and the riders on their backs were dragged down and hauled to the rear, where they too were pounded with maces.

Man against horse, spear against spear — close-quarters slaughter erupted at once.

Very quickly, because they had failed to build up speed, the two hundred Tangut cavalry could not sustain the casualties, and they fell back, leaving the ground strewn with the corpses of men and horses.

But before Qiong Reduojin could catch his breath, the second wave of two hundred came galloping up, and with them a sky full of arrows raining down continuously on his position.

The suit of golden armor that belonged to Zhang Zhao was now bristling with arrows; the long shafts and fletching were even beginning to interfere with Qiong Reduojin's vision.

At the same time, arrows kept dropping from overhead, and every clang and clatter was a pain that sank into the marrow.

One wave! Two waves! Three waves!

Qiong Reduojin and his men held against a full three waves. The corpses of men and horses on the slope began to block the path and seal off the space the Tangut cavalry needed to charge.

Seeing this, Qiong Reduojin even led his soldiers in a countercharge and drove the fourth wave of Tangut riders back down.

A taste of blood spread through Tuoba Chongde's mouth — the tension had made him bite through his own lip.

The situation was turning dangerous. In less than a quarter of an hour, his three thousand cavalry had lost at least three or four hundred men.

In truth, after the second wave failed to break through, he should have withdrawn. Cavalry relied entirely on the momentum of the initial charge; once they lost speed, no matter what kind of iron cavalry they were, they were no better than infantry.

But he simply could not resign himself to it, because on that slope over there, only a hundred or so men were still standing. It seemed as though one more charge would take it.

The temptation was too great. If he could kill Zhang Zhao, the Dingnan Army could annex Hexi and Longyou.

Then they would no longer be trapped in the four prefectures of Yin and Xia. Perhaps their Tangut people could even become, like the Khitan, a power north of the Central Plains.

"Dismount! Heavy infantry to the front! Yeli Shi, I give you five hundred men — hold off the armored soldiers over there with your lives and buy me half a quarter-hour!"

Faced with such an enormous temptation, Tuoba Chongde could not bring himself to give the order to retreat, and in the end he resolved to stake everything on one desperate throw.

"Switch to pear-blossom spears! Let's give these barbarian curs a fresh taste!" Qiong Reduojin laughed loudly.

One of his arms was no longer obeying him properly — a Tangut cavalryman had smashed it with a mace, and had he not dodged quickly, a blow like that to the head would have cost him his life if not flayed the skin off him.

As for the rest of his body, there was not a single patch of good flesh left. Fortunately, the quality of Zhang Zhao's golden armor was genuinely superb; had he been wearing ordinary lamellar armor, Qiong Reduojin might well have been finished.

Seeing the Tangut cavalry in black lamellar armor beginning to mass below the hill, Qiong Re Duojin whistled to the armored soldiers behind him, and a hundred and twenty or thirty men charged straight out after him.

Here they come again!

The Tanguts below the hill had not expected the men on the hill to dare charge down at them. Caught off guard, they were beaten back step after step.

Tuoba Chongde was utterly enraged. He still had more than two thousand men here — more than two thousand cavalry — and you, a hundred or so infantry, dare launch a counter-charge against me?

In an instant, this veteran of the Dingnan Army cast all thoughts of the situation and the consequences to the back of his mind.

He personally took up a cavalry lance, roared, and led his men straight at Qiong Re Duojin. Since you dare run down from the hill, then this is the perfect chance to destroy you.

But Tuoba Chongde had ridden only a few steps on his warhorse when a stench he had never smelled before struck him full in the face.

The next moment, a blaze of golden light flashed before his eyes, followed by a piercing, bone-deep agony. Warm liquid began streaming across his face, and his vision instantly blurred.

In the sudden burst of firelight, the front ranks of the Dingnan Army cavalry immediately fell into chaos. Even if the men were not afraid, the horses were!

Qiong Re Duojin and his men, charging down, stabbed the riders above and hacked at the horses' legs below. A hundred-odd men somehow produced the effect of a host of thousands.

On the other side, Zhang Zhao roared and charged down shoulder to shoulder with Man Xiong and Dunzhu.

It was as if they had returned to that afternoon outside Wuni City in the Zhongyun Kingdom, when four hundred men, united as one, had launched a counter-charge against the Tangut cavalry, and the flames spewing from the pear-blossom spears had blazed among the Tangut rear ranks.

Tuoba Chongde had left Yeli Shi only five hundred men. How could they be a match for Zhang Zhao's four hundred Hanshan Capital troops — to say nothing of the pear-blossom spears and the divine-arm crossbows Zhang Zhao also had.

In barely the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, Yeli Shi was split in two by a single axe-stroke from Man Xiong.

By now, however, Qiong Re Duojin had been swallowed up amid the black figures of the Tanguts.

The Tanguts believed that Qiong Re Duojin, in his golden armor, was Zhang Zhao. Even though the surprise attack had left them dazed and reeling, they still mustered their last strength to surround and attack him — and even Tuoba Chongde, his eyes burned, did not withdraw.

"Man Xiong, Dunzhu — each of you take a hundred men and go rescue Qiong Re Duojin!"

Zhang Zhao bellowed. Seeing the two of them still hesitating, he grew so furious he was ready to go himself.

Man Xiong and Dunzhu had no choice but to obey. They split off two hundred men and charged toward Qiong Re Duojin.

Zhang Zhao knew the danger was not yet over. Everything now depended on which unit received the order and hurried back in time.

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