Chapter 444: Cross the River! Cross the River!

Qicheng was filled with rejoicing. Fu Yanqing, Gao Xingzhou, Hula Le, and the other commanders pursued for more than ten li before recalling their troops and returning.

The moment Yelu Wuzhi retreated, the morale of the entire Khitan army collapsed.

The several thousand men of the Right Pishi Army were the first to leave the battlefield, followed by Zhao Yanshou's Lulong Army.

To the east and north of Qicheng there were fully more than twenty thousand men and several thousand civilian laborers. In the mountain-shattering collapse, several hundred died from trampling one another alone.

At this critical moment, Gao Xingzhou also entangled the more than four hundred armored cavalry of the Khitan Right Pishi Iron Falcon Army.

These men were even more crucial than the three thousand Left Pishi Fengsheng Army troops that Zhe Deyi and the others had defeated by the Hun River.

One can tell just from the names: among the Khitan Pishi armies, those named after fierce birds and fierce beasts — especially those named after fierce birds, such as the Sparrowhawk, the Falcon, and the Eagle — are the elite of the elite.

But although the Left Pishi Fengsheng Army also belonged to the Pishi Army, in reality they were selected from the Han and tribal soldiers of Fengsheng Prefecture — the area around later Zhuozhou in Hebei — and were not pure Khitans.

Yet these four hundred armored cavalry of the Iron Falcon Army were the trusted core followers of the Khitan Yelu clan. Killing several thousand of the others would not equal killing these four hundred riders.

In the end, at the cost of more than ten wounds on his own body and the loss of several dozen armored cavalry, Gao Xingzhou, with the help of Hula Le's two hundred riders, captured and killed these four hundred armored cavalry of the Khitan Iron Falcon Army.

However, the commanders did not dare pursue too far, because outside Qicheng there were only a little over twenty thousand Khitan troops; the remaining thirty thousand or so were encamped just over ten li away.

In fact, after fleeing seven or eight li, Yelu Wuzhi had gradually begun to steady his formation.

And Gao Xingzhou, together with Fu Yanqing and Hula Le, had altogether fewer than four thousand men, more than a thousand of whom were infantry of the Guide Army.

To have beaten back Yelu Wuzhi's twenty thousand or more men today was already an enormous success; they truly did not have the ability to rout all sixty thousand of the Khitan host in one blow.

Therefore, after pursuing for about ten li, the commanders recalled their troops and returned to camp.

In Qicheng, Gao Xingzhou raised six great bowls of wine and stubbornly insisted on toasting Fu Yanqing, Hula Le, Yao Yuanfu, Wang Zhou, Pan Huan, and Xue Huairang, one bowl to each.

For he now understood that it was not Shi Chonggui who had sent a great army to rescue him, but Fu Yanqing, Hula Le, and the others who had risked death to come save him.

Toward Hula Le in particular, Gao Xingzhou was extremely grateful.

The other four could be said to have been goaded into choosing to rescue him, and Fu Yanqing was his sworn friend in life and death, so he would certainly have come.

Only Hula Le, who had no great bond with him, had actually risked death to come — this was a kindness as vast as heaven!

Hula Le returned the toast with a bowl of wine. He was about the same age as Gao Xingzhou, so he could address Gao Xingzhou directly by his courtesy name.

"Brother Shangzhi, there is no need for this. I came today for the great cause of the nation. How could one see a loyal minister trapped in heavy encirclement and not rescue him?

In the old days in Hexi, failing to rescue one's comrades was the gravest crime in the army. If the King of Liang were here, he too would certainly have sent a great force to the rescue."

These words were a little too obvious. Hula Le was of Tatar origin, and he was no longer young when he began following Zhang Zhao.

Therefore, although he was skilled with bow and horse and quick of mind, he was still somewhat stiff and unpolished in such matters.

But to Gao Xingzhou's ears, these words carried a different weight.

Hula Le's temperament was the sort one could see at a glance. In Gao Xingzhou's view, Hula Le was a sinicized barbarian without a scheming bone in his body.

If he said such a thing today, then it must truly be what was in his heart.

He, Gao Xingzhou, father and son, had held Qicheng with five thousand Guide Army troops from Songzhou, serving as a shield for the nation — only to be nearly done to death by Shi Chonggui and Jing Yanguang.

After such treatment, it was impossible not to feel resentment in his heart. It was just that he could not say much about it, so he silently recorded a heavy mark against Shi Chonggui in his mind.

Qicheng was in an uproar of rejoicing, while in Weizhou one could say the mood was like mourning one's parents.

Yelu Deguang had just received Yelu Wuzhi's report of defeat when he kicked over the low-legged table before him.

Although the commanders at Qicheng had not dared pursue too far, the Khitan losses were by no means small.

The Iron Falcon Army had lost four hundred elite armored cavalry and could almost be said to have lost its fighting strength.

The Iron Pigeon Army and Iron Forest Army had also lost over a hundred riders each, and the other cavalry had lost several hundred.

Worst off was Zhao Yanshou's Lulong Army. Because they were mostly infantry and had withdrawn last,

and because Zhao Dejun and his son Zhao Yanshou had never belonged to the Daibei military-merit clique and had the habit of clinging to the Khitan's thigh, they were despised by the generals of the Central Plains. So the Qicheng commanders had deliberately chased after them.

Of Zhao Yanshou's own command of more than five thousand men, by the time he gathered his remnant troops, only a little over a thousand remained.

The rest had either been captured, killed, or fled — in any case, they would not be coming back. It was said that Zhao Yanshou had already wept himself unconscious several times.

How could he not weep! This Liao state of the Khitans could still be said at this time to bear deep tribal marks.

These several thousand men were Zhao Yanshou's private property, and also the capital that allowed him to remain in favor before Yelu Deguang.

Now his capital had shrunk by two-thirds. Without these several thousand men, he could no longer raise his voice before Yelu Deguang and the other Khitans.

Having kicked over the low-legged table, cursed everyone out, and vented his anger by finding excuses to have several palace attendants beaten, Yelu Deguang was forced to begin considering matters carefully again.

He had led a host of one hundred sixty thousand south, and now, in just over a month,

the western army had first won a small victory in Hedong and then suffered a great defeat. The Wei King was leading more than ten thousand remnant troops and was almost at Weizhou.

On the eastern route, Mada had likewise first won a small victory and then suffered a great defeat. He had gained Bozhou, but at Majiakou he had lost several thousand men.

Not only had he exhausted the materials for building the pontoon bridge, he had also dragged Yang Guangyuan into near-total annihilation.

The last remaining hope, the main central force, had fared no better. A tiny Qicheng could not be taken in nearly two months of fighting, and instead they had broken their teeth on it.

Those were four hundred armored cavalry of the Iron Falcon Army! Yelu Deguang was so pained that tears nearly came to his eyes.

No! This cannot go on!

This sworn elder brother of Great King Zhang clenched both fists. If he made no response, then in the eyes of outsiders it would seem that he, Yelu Deguang, truly could not defeat his grandson.

At this thought, Yelu Deguang roared in fury and summoned his commanders. He would personally lead the army, bring up the entire main force, and with one hundred ten thousand men, with the force of a thunderbolt, take Qicheng!

Yelu Deguang, having suffered a great loss, was raging, while Jing Yanguang, who had won the battle, was having no easier a time.

After Fu Yanqing, Hula Le, and the others crossed the river, the Later Jin army at Chanzhou was like a mountain fire held in check.

At the end of the twelfth month, word of the great victory at Qicheng arrived. Gao Xingzhou sent several dozen eloquent officers and soldiers of the Guide Army, holding high the banners of victory, south across the pontoon bridge back to Chanzhou.

They wore captured Khitan Iron Falcon Army armor to boast of themselves, and only then did the tens of thousands of Jin troops learn that they had truly smashed the Khitan.

Jing Yanguang felt numb all over, and in his heart he cursed Yelu Deguang's entire family to the heavens.

If I'd known you were this useless in a fight, why the hell would I have waited in the south! Now there's trouble.

Originally Jing Yanguang had still wanted to hold things down, to wait until the matter was less conspicuous, and then he himself would advise Shi Chonggui to cross the river.

Little did he know that the fury in the army had long since passed the point of being suppressed.

This was the Five Dynasties, after all! The warriors who held the blades in their hands were arrogant beyond the heavens.

Had this been the Great Song, a weighty minister like Jing Yanguang might well have framed the frontline commanders to protect his own position and steal their merits.

But now, with the soldiers' blades in their own hands, could they possibly stomach such a thing?

In the dead of winter, in the twelfth month, they had dragged the soldiers to the banks of the Yellow River to freeze in the cold wind — no battle, no withdrawal, just coarse grain cakes day after day. Was this some kind of joke?

Moreover, the soldiers of Hedong, Li Shouzhen, Huangfu Yu, Gao Xingzhou, Fu Yanqing, and the rest had all won merit in battle and were on the verge of being rewarded — while they themselves had gotten nothing at all.

And now that they had seen the Khitan, they were pure chickens! So why not cross the river right away, go beat the hell out of them, and earn some battle merit?

And so, Gao Xingzhou's soldiers paraded through the streets wearing the Khitan's fine iron lamellar armor and riding the Khitan's fine horses, and in an instant they set alight the hearts of the tens of thousands of Jin soldiers on the south bank of the Yellow River.

Countless soldiers called out to their friends and comrades and marched toward Shi Chonggui's traveling palace.

When the officers saw this, their guts clenched at once. Who would dare stop them? Far from stopping them, they took the initiative to join the soldiers' ranks and led them all together to present their demands.

This was the harbinger of mutiny! If Shi Chonggui died, they could simply set up a new sovereign — the real priority was not getting one's own head thrown away.

But Jing Yanguang was not fated to die that day. It happened that An Shenqi, Grand Preceptor of the Palace Examination and Military Governor of Hezhong, had just arrived escorting a grain shipment. Seeing several thousand soldiers seething with fury, he hurried over to stop them and ask what was wrong.

As an elder statesman of the Daibei military establishment, An Shenqi was fair-minded and never withheld pay or provisions, and he commanded great respect among the soldiers. And so he actually managed to talk down the imperial guard soldiers who were on the verge of erupting.

By this time, Jing Yanguang was so frightened his legs had gone soft, and he was holding the entrance of the traveling palace with several hundred trusted troops. An Shenqi did not so much as glance at him, and walked straight into Shi Chonggui's inner palace.

Inside the inner palace, Shi Chonggui had been up since early morning, drinking wine and enjoying music.

Back in the Eastern Capital of Kaifeng, Lady Feng was dazzlingly beautiful and herself quite skilled in such arts. She often kept soft-voiced female musicians in the palace to perform songs and dances, and Shi Chonggui had long grown accustomed to such pleasures.

But since personally taking the field at Chanzhou, absurd as he was, he could not possibly have brought Lady Feng and the female music troupe along.

So he could only summon the junior officers of the imperial guard, who played the three-stringed huqin, accompanied by Qiang flutes, beating time and striking drums, dancing and singing in turn, to serve as entertainment.

But how could the Qiang flutes blown by ordinary soldiers and the huqin they played compare to the palace's female musicians? Slightly tipsy, Shi Chonggui took Feng Dao by the hand and said:

"The soldiers are coarse, and their music is harsh and grating. This is no music at all!"

Feng Dao took the hint at once and replied: "Why not have the female musicians of the Eastern Capital palace brought to Chanzhou, and let them perform, to delight Your Majesty?"

Shi Chonggui wrestled inwardly for a short while, but in the end he was not that kind of utterly dissolute sovereign. The Jin state was already tottering in the wind and rain, and it was no dynasty that had unified the realm.

Shi Chonggui shook his head almost imperceptibly and muttered under his breath, "That would be going too far!"

No sooner had the words left his mouth than a clamor arose outside, and a guard came in to report that An Shenqi requested an audience.

Shi Chonggui did hold some respect for An Shenqi, so he immediately dismissed the musicians, then turned to Feng Dao with a bitter smile.

"The matter has come. Even the Son of Heaven cannot amuse himself at all hours!"

It seemed this man was not entirely ignorant of what was happening outside — only that matters were far more urgent than he had imagined.

An Shenqi came in without even performing the rites, strode straight over, and seized Shi Chonggui by the sleeve.

"The situation is urgent! The troops are on the verge of great upheaval. I beg Your Majesty to dismiss Jing Yanguang at once, to quell the soldiers' fury!"

Seeing a renowned minister and veteran general like An Shenqi in such agitation, Shi Chonggui immediately broke out in a cold sweat, and his drunkenness vanished completely in an instant.

An Shenqi pulled Shi Chonggui up onto the wall of the traveling palace to look. Feng Dao, who had followed them, felt his calves seize up, and he nearly fell over.

Outside the traveling palace, no fewer than ten thousand soldiers had gathered. The fierce general Murong Yanchao spurred his horse forward and, pointing his halberd at Jing Yanguang, cursed:

"When you broke off good relations with the Khitan, how brave you sounded! Now that the Khitan have come like this, how utterly spent your spirit is!"

Huangfu Yu, just returned from Majiakou, also rushed forward, grabbed Jing Yanguang by the sleeve, and cursed him roundly.

"The Khitan have come in force, and it is all because of you! We braved arrows and stones and fought in blood, yet how dare you hold your troops back and refuse to come out?"

Shi Chonggui understood at once why An Shenqi was so alarmed. Damn it all — if they delayed even a few more breaths, mutiny would break out on the spot.

At this point, Shi Chonggui's wits returned to him immediately. He hastily had his attendants shout along the wall of the traveling palace:

"Jing Yanguang is dismissed! Tomorrow we strike camp, cross the river, and give battle to the Khitan!"

The soldiers below the traveling palace were appeased at once. Their cheers thundered, and the cry of "Cross the river! Cross the river!" rang out without end.

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