Chapter 795: Noob: I Really Got Squad-Wiped This Time

The stream was wide but shallow. Heavy-armored infantry crossing it was indeed inconvenient — but cavalry found it easy!

Chen Tingxiao and the elite riders under his command, pent up for over ten days, now completely unleashed themselves and brought their full fighting strength to bear.

These raw, untested recruits had one very notable trait — hard to say whether it was a strength or a weakness — which was that after winning a battle, they easily fell into a kind of frenzied state.

For example, right now: Chen Tingxiao had personally slain the enemy general Hulunjian and routed nearly ten thousand enemy cavalry with only a thousand riders — yet he still dared to keep pursuing.

In his view, it was only seven or eight li at most — what did that matter!

And so, before Guo Guangyi's army even reached the little stream, it was dealt a sudden, stunning blow.

He had not yet had time to rally his defeated troops when he saw Chen Tingxiao's men, mixed in among them, driving the routed soldiers in units of a hundred riders — like fish entering the sea — stirring up waves of bloody slaughter throughout every part of his great army.

One wave of cavalry even charged right up to him and shot the White Wolf Army — the very foundation Guo Guangyi had built his standing upon — into utter chaos, men and horses toppling.

This was a scene that only frenzied recruits, bursting with heroic passion after a great victory, could produce — a thousand riders weaving back and forth through forty thousand enemy cavalry, slaughtering as they went. Seasoned old soldiers, under normal circumstances, truly could not bring themselves to do such a thing.

Charging left and thrusting right, Chen Tingxiao lost count of how many enemy officers he had killed. Only when blood had soaked his entire cavalry lance through, until it was so slick to the touch that he could no longer use it, did he finally come somewhat to his senses. He immediately ordered the trusted retainers beside him to release signal fireworks and summon his cavalry to withdraw.

The soldiers fought fiercely toward the place where the fireworks soared into the sky. But when Chen Tingxiao checked, the Second Company of the First Battalion had still not returned to the ranks.

The company adjutant of the Fourth Company, his face covered in blood, said while bandaging a wound on his forehead, "Company Commander Jia seems to have been surrounded on the west side. When I charged through, I thought I heard him roaring."

Chen Tingxiao looked around. By now the hot blood had cooled somewhat, and the soldiers' faces all showed signs of wanting to retreat — after all, the enemy had forty thousand men, all cavalry, and they themselves had only just barely fought their way out.

Chen Tingxiao took the waterskin handed to him by a trusted retainer, washed the clotted blood from his cavalry lance, then raised his arm and shouted.

"How can we, the brave sons of the Great Zhou, watch our comrades fall into desperate straits and not save them? If we do not rescue the Second Company today, then when we ourselves are surrounded in days to come, who will come to save us?"

Hearing Chen Tingxiao speak thus, Shi Shouxin, the Right Cavalry Army's Chief Adjutant and a valiant officer, spurred his horse out of the ranks and declared with fervor, "The Commander speaks rightly. We came together, so we should return together. I, Shi Shouxin, swear to follow the Commander unto death — even if I die on the battlefield, I will never flee alone to save my own life."

Shi Shouxin's endorsement immediately stirred up morale, for no one wished to be seen as a coward who fled alone to cling to life.

Chen Tingxiao was overjoyed. He at once arranged for the wounded to withdraw first, then personally selected four hundred riders, raised the great silver-white banner, and charged fiercely toward the place where the Second Company was surrounded.

The Second Company was indeed surrounded — and in especially grave danger, because after the others had broken out, Guo Guangyi, feeling his prestige badly damaged, had ordered the White Wolf Army to join in hemming them in.

Thus the Second Company, under the leadership of Adjutant Jia, fought desperately to break through, but the enemy only grew more numerous, and they could never fight their way out.

However, these enemy riders had not expected that Chen Tingxiao, already free of the encirclement, would dare to turn back with four hundred riders. Caught completely off guard, they were sent tumbling, men and horses alike.

The Second Company had been on the verge of despair, but when they suddenly saw the dazzling silver-white banner and heard the war cries of their comrades, their morale soared. The two forces charged toward the same point, and somehow, amid an encirclement of several thousand cavalry, they carved out a bloody path to freedom.

Though the enemy riders had been caught off guard and their morale had dropped sharply, they were numerous after all, and they still wanted to pursue and snap at their heels.

Shi Shouxin gave a great shout and personally led twenty mounted sharpshooters. They opened the distance, then took up position on a small hillock with strong bows in hand.

Watching the countless pursuers in the distance, Shi Shouxin and his twenty riders calmly drew their bows. Every one of them was a crack shot, and the pursuers who fell at the twang of their bowstrings were beyond counting.

In the space of a mere ten or so breaths, Shi Shouxin and his men, heedless of the aching in their arms, each loosed seven or eight arrows in rapid succession, forcibly shooting down over a hundred pursuing riders — so terrifying the several hundred riders farther back that they trembled with fear and dared not advance.

Though Shi Shouxin's arms were trembling from exhaustion, his heart was utterly elated. He laughed three great laughs, then led his twenty sharpshooters away.

Behind them, the pursuers looked at one another. Then someone, no one knew who, summoned the courage to spur his horse forward — and they actually came on again.

But just as they passed the hillock, they suddenly heard a thunderous shout: "You barbarian curs still dare to come forward? Have you come to throw your lives away?"

The pursuers looked up — it was none other than that terrifying Tang general with the cavalry lance, charging back again with over a hundred riders.

This pursuit had only been mustered by desperately screwing up their courage in the first place. How could it withstand the counter-charge Chen Tingxiao had long prepared? Before the two sides even met, these riders scattered in panic.

Chen Tingxiao and his hundred riders chased and killed for several hundred more paces, sending them tumbling, men and horses colliding and falling in countless numbers, before finally turning back.

Thanks to the onslaught of Chen Tingxiao's troops, Hu Guang seized the chance to order Yao Yuanfu's thousand elite soldiers and Li Jixun's thousand crossbowmen of the Palace Vanguard Reconnaissance Battalion to cross the stream and form ranks.

Hu Guang did this deliberately. He could have crossed four thousand men, but he deliberately crossed only two thousand — clearly meant to provoke Guo Guangyi into attacking with his cavalry and letting them taste the power of the crossbows.

Guo Guangyi had already been provoked nearly past reason. He commanded forty thousand cavalry, yet Zhou troops — a little over a thousand riders — had threaded through his formation, killing and wounding at least two thousand of his men.

This was no longer a matter of face. It was a question of whether, if the killing went on like this, the army's morale would collapse entirely.

At this moment, seeing that only one or two thousand Zhou troops had crossed the stream, he instantly — with great "acumen" — realized that this was a perfect opportunity to strike an enemy halfway across a crossing.

Guo Guangyi immediately ordered the war drums beaten, personally selected fifteen thousand elite cavalry, and sent five hundred heavy-armored White Wolf Army riders as the vanguard. He was determined to devour these two thousand Zhou troops and restore the army's morale.

Yao Yuanfu and Li Jixun were both veterans of countless battles. Yao Yuanfu in particular had been fighting the Khitan at Datong since the age of fourteen, and was now fifty-six years old — so rich in experience that Guo Guangyi could not catch up even if he beat his brains out.

Seeing the ferocious onrush of the enemy riders, he said to Li Jixun, "These barbarian horsemen make a great show of force, but they are far fewer than the Khitan or the Zubu.

Better that we feign weakness. Wait until they are within a hundred paces, when the enemy riders are bunched together and moving at speed, then shoot them down with concentrated crossbow fire — we can certainly shatter them!"

Li Jixun agreed wholeheartedly. He ordered great shields raised, but did not set a forest of long spears; instead he arrayed fifteen hundred crossbowmen in three ranks, hidden behind the shields.

At first, when these barbarian horsemen came galloping in, they had felt some apprehension.

For they had just been beaten rather badly — though not themselves personally, they had seen with their own eyes the sorry state of their beaten comrades.

But now, seeing that the sons of Tang across from them could only shelter behind great shields and had not even set up many long spears, they thought: how could such a formation possibly frighten warhorses? The enemy had the stream at their backs — once broken through by a single charge, there would be nowhere to run.

At this thought, the barbarian riders' morale soared. Whooping and howling, their originally loose formation began to tighten.

Everyone thought this was a chance to squeeze a soft persimmon, so naturally they all scrambled to the front. Many even believed that as soon as they reached sixty paces and loosed their first volley of arrows, the enemy would collapse.

"Bang!" A brilliant firework shot into the sky. Seventy paces — the barbarian riders had already built up speed. Yao Yuanfu gave a great shout, and the front-rank soldiers suddenly pulled away the great shields. Fifteen hundred arm-drawn crossbows instantly appeared before everyone's eyes.

"Woo-wah! Woo-wah!" Two thousand warriors let out ape-like howls all at once, and the very sound startled the enemy's warhorses.

Then Yao Yuanfu fiercely waved the command banner, and the fifteen hundred arm-drawn crossbows opened fire in three volleys, one rank after another.

It was too terrible — truly too terrible! At sixty paces, the bolts from arm-drawn crossbows pierced anything. The charging barbarian riders slammed into what seemed an invisible wall of iron — men and horses toppling, the fallen beyond count.

And because they had been so eager to claim merit, their charging formation was far too dense — it was as if they had deliberately lined up to receive the crossbow bolts.

The fifteen hundred crossbowmen in three ranks each loosed two rounds — three thousand bolts in all flew out. Against such a densely packed enemy formation, at least a thousand riders were shot down.

In a short time they had lost nearly ten percent, so much so that a huge dent had been punched into the charging enemy formation.

On the battlefield, warhorses screamed in agony and men groaned. The din was enormous, yet in the heart of every barbarian rider there seemed to be a deathly silence.

In the river valleys of their homeland, a clash of tens of thousands of horsemen would usually take days of pursuit and combat to inflict losses this great — and then the battle would be over.

What frightened them even more was that among the men rolling and shrieking on the ground, many wore a suit of lamellar or mail armor.

In the Central Plains, a man with a suit of iron armor was a hero of his village or district — let alone in the river valleys, where anyone with a suit of iron armor was a beg lord, or even an iqta lord with fiefs and benefices.

That iron armor was the guarantee of their status and even their lives, for ordinary herdsmen — whether Oghuz, Uyghur, or the Sogdians and Persians under Samanid rule — had no ability to pierce armor.

Thus in all the years of fighting in the river valleys, armored lords had rarely died. The ones laid out stiff were mostly those herdsmen who wrapped themselves in a sheepskin coat and went to battle with a rotten bow and a wooden spear.

So this single volley killed at least a hundred armored cavalry at once — the psychological blow to these men was in no way less than, and perhaps even greater than, the killing of a thousand armed herdsmen.

While they were still reeling in shock and terror, Yao Yuanfu was not. He handed the command flag to Li Jixun, let out a great roar, and was the first to ride out into battle. Behind him followed the two hundred yabing guards he had handpicked from the Central Plains.

They wielded long-handled axes and great wooden clubs, wore heavy armor, and fell upon the panicked bandit cavalry like wolves and tigers.

Only now did the bandit riders react. Not one of them dared resist; all tried to wheel their horses and retreat, but the more they tried to flee, the greater the chaos became.

And so a scene appeared on the battlefield that made men gape: Yao Yuanfu and his two or three hundred men were chasing and cutting down several thousand cavalry. Not only did the cavalry not strike back, they crashed into one another and trampled their own men. Those killed by their own side were nearly as many as those killed by Yao Yuanfu and his troops.

Watching from the east bank of the small river, Hu Guang could not help clapping his hands. "Lord Yao is nearly sixty, yet still so fierce and brave — truly a Lian Po reborn!"

His praise finished, Hu Guang waved his hand. "Left Camp Divine Crossbow Battalion, Left Tiger Guard, follow me across the river. That villain Guo is about to leap at the wall like a cornered dog!"

On the west bank of the river, Hu Guang had once again guessed Guo Guangyi's next move exactly right. He watched fifteen thousand riders charge the two thousand infantry on the opposite side, only to be thrown into utter disarray, their army's morale shaken and restless.

Of these fifty thousand troops, only twenty thousand belonged to Guo Guangyi himself, and half of those were armed herdsmen brought along merely to make up numbers. Another twenty thousand had been "sponsored" by his future father-in-law's Kelike tribe, and the remaining ten thousand were mercenaries recruited from various places.

Now that the White Wolf Army had suffered over thirty percent casualties, Guo Guangyi's strength was badly damaged. An ordinary man would certainly think of fleeing, but Guo Guangyi would not, because he knew he had nowhere left to run.

If he went back defeated like this, he could not even settle the mercenaries' final payment, let alone how the Kelike tribe would view him. He feared he would not make it back to Talas before being killed by the mercenaries or murdered by the Kelike tribe.

Rather than be killed, it was better to stir up the Kelike tribe and the mercenaries now and let them die. The more of them died, the safer Guo Guangyi would be.

"White Water City, Talas — I offer them all up. If need be, even marrying into your family is not out of the question. We still have over thirty thousand riders. As long as we unite our hearts, we will surely break the Tang army!"

Guo Guangyi had thrown out bait the Kelike tribe could not refuse. These two cities were exactly what the Kelike tribe wanted most, and swallowing up Guo Guangyi's hundred-odd thousand people was what they desired above all.

"Then let it be as the Khan wishes. We'll drive those Tianfang holy warriors in front as the vanguard and smash through the Tang army in one blow!"

The general sent by the Kelike tribe compromised. The Tang army across the field was formidable, but there was nothing much to fear, because they had few cavalry. If the fight went badly, they could still run; if they won, the gains would be enormous.

Hu Guang stood in the center of the formation, stroking his beard, unable to suppress a smile. He now had not fifteen hundred crossbows, but forty-five hundred bows and crossbows.

With this configuration, let alone fighting these mixed barbarians — in history, the Southern Song had used such firepower to shoot down the iron cavalry of the Jin kingdom, and it had been enough.

The bandit barbarians churned up sky-filling dust as they charged from three directions, looking mighty and imposing. But what they faced were elite heavenly soldiers of the Central Plains, each standing five chi six cun tall — over 1.7 meters — clad in heavy armor, bows and crossbows in hand, with modao glaive glaive glaives planted beside them.

Arrows flew like locusts; blades gleamed like bolts of white silk.

These bandit barbarians had not the slightest chance. One after another, their howls turned to wails. Let alone piercing the Great Zhou battle formation, barely any of them even got close enough to be cut down by a modao glaive glaive glaive.

Li Jijue's eyes were red with desperation. The officers and soldiers under his command crowded around him, their clamor making his head throb as if it would burst.

"Commandant! We were personally chosen by the Sage to accompany the Commander-in-Chief on this western campaign! You are the fiercest warrior in the whole army, and I usually hold my head so high it touches the sky, thinking myself bold and brave.

Today the whole army wins merit while we sit here eating wind and drinking sand, having earned not an inch of merit and killed not a single enemy. How will we ever have the face to stand before others again!"

As he spoke, this hot-tempered fellow even hurled his iron helmet to the ground, panting like a bellows, blaming Li Jijue for failing to seize a chance to get onto the battlefield.

Li Jijue flew into a rage. He went up and gave the man a flurry of punches and kicks. "Fuck your mother! You think I don't want to go? Lord Hu forbids it — what can I do?"

"Who says you're forbidden to go?" Hu Guang now walked gravely to the rear and glared hard at Li Jijue and the warriors under him.

Then he said to the military judge beside him, "Li Jijue struck a comrade. Make a note of it — fine him half a month's pay."

Half a month's pay? Who cared about that!

Li Jijue hurried forward and clasped his hands to Hu Guang. "Fine me a full month and I'll have no complaint, Commander-in-Chief. I only beg you to let us lads go into battle and kill the enemy."

Seeing that the mood had reached its peak, Hu Guang put an arm around Li Jijue's shoulders and pointed into the distance, to where a great banner stood.

"Do you see that great banner in the distance? That must be where the villain Guo is. Can you cut him down for me?"

Li Jijue was overjoyed. So the Commander-in-Chief meant to use this fine steel of his on the blade's edge!

"Yes! Rest assured, Commander-in-Chief. Give me two hundred riders and I will surely take the villain Guo's head!"

"Not two hundred riders. At most a hundred and fifty. I have other uses for the rest." Hu Guang shook his head and wagged one finger.

"Fine! But I get to pick the men myself." Li Jijue agreed at once, then swiftly went down to select his troops.

Competition immediately turned fierce. Every man did all he could to be chosen.

Hu Guang chuckled to himself again. It wasn't that he couldn't give two hundred riders — but if he gave two hundred, where would they get this battle-lust that was about to explode?

Li Jijue put on his cloth-faced iron armor, fixed his iron helmet, and took up a round shield and saber. Though he had little learning, two lines of Li Taibai's poetry suddenly flashed through his mind, and he could not help chanting them aloud.

"The Zhao rider wears a rough-tasseled cap; his Wu hook gleams like frost and snow. His silver saddle shines upon the white horse; swift as a shooting star he gallops."

The stout lads behind him took up the chant: "Ten steps, one kill! Ten steps, one kill!" Their battle-lust soared.

Li Jijue let out a great shout: "At a hundred and fifty paces, accelerate to full speed. Ignore everything else — only cut down the general and seize the banner!"

Amid a thunderous roar of assent, the hundred and fifty picked riders circled around the side of the battlefield with great discretion. Only when they were about two hundred paces from Guo Guangyi's great banner did the barbarian riders spot them, and then came howling toward them.

Arrows fell like rain. Li Jijue raised his round shield high; the ding-ding-clang-clang of impacts was unceasing. Waves of pain, as if he were being beaten, came from every part of his body, until he bristled like a hedgehog.

Li Jijue paid it no heed. His speed did not drop but increased. He charged to within a hundred-odd paces, let out a great shout, threw away his round shield, and took the great bow from the side of his horse.

The armored men behind him drew their bows together with him. At once arrows flew like locusts, and those who fell at the twang of the string lay one after another in a line, as they hacked a bloody path through the enemy cavalry.

After firing five arrows in succession, Li Jijue threw away his hard bow, drew a pair of wrought-bronze maces, flipped up his visor, and charged straight for the great banner, killing as he went. Along the way, no one knew how many barbarian riders he knocked down or how many horse skulls he smashed.

But Guo Guangyi had risen amid chaos, and he did indeed still have a number of loyal followers. The White Wolf Army in their mail armor were only mediocre fighters, and mail armor was utterly useless against wrought-bronze maces, yet still they threw themselves forward one after another to block the way.

Then Li Jijue saw a man in black mail with a water-red cloak over it, being escorted away by a cluster of armored soldiers. He let out a thunderous roar and whirled his twin maces, beating the enemy riders into howling misery.

But unfortunately there were too many of the enemy — several hundred riders at least. Li Jijue now had only twenty or thirty riders around him, and though he fought furiously, he still could not get close.

Seeing this, Li Jijue took out a spare bow and fired three arrows at the man. He heard a series of screams — the arrows struck him square in the back, yet he did not fall from his horse.

This was heaven's will. Li Jijue immediately wheeled his horse and gave up the chase. With the twenty riders around him, he charged toward the great banner on the hillside, then ordered his close followers to topple it together. It was too damn thick — if they tried to chop it down, it would probably take half the day.

As the great banner came crashing down, the barbarian cavalry, already on the verge of collapse, broke utterly.

Hu Guang personally donned armor and took up a lance. The battle had reached this point; the outcome was settled, and he no longer needed many guards. He clapped the shoulder of his cousin Hu Zun, Hu Qilang, and said:

"I reckoned Li Jijue might fail to catch the villain Guo, and so it has proved. Take thirty riders and make sure you stay on Guo's heels. Leave markers along the way. You must take this man alive!"

Hu Zun was one of the Hu family lads who had returned east with Hu Guang back then, and the brother Hu Guang trusted most. He gave a fierce nod, and with the thirty riders Hu Guang had deliberately held back, set off in light gear in pursuit.

Guo Guangyi, with only a little over two hundred trusted riders left, galloped headlong, his head down. The warmth spreading across his back was from the arrow wound inflicted by that fierce general just now. Fortunately, he had a fine suit of mail, and the distance had been great, so he was barely hurt — the skin was only grazed.

And the reason he could choose to retreat so quickly was that he had long planned for this. He had long ago worked out how to escape if he could not win, and now it had indeed come in handy.

Only, the feeling of it coming in handy was thoroughly unpleasant!

Because although he could get away now, the foundation he had built over more than ten years had been utterly destroyed.

Now he had only one or two hundred men left, but the mercenaries he had cheated and the Kelike tribe, which had suffered heavy losses, would never let him off.

Even the one or two hundred White Wolf Army personal guards around him would become unreliable.

Thinking of this, Guo Guangyi ordered his men to throw away their armor to make flight easier, while shouting to the crowd.

"We'll make for Talas. Though the city surely cannot be held, the wealth in the city's storehouses is still there. Each of you will take five hundred dinars in silver coin.

Those willing to follow me from now on, we'll go together to Samanid Persia. The Tang army is so powerful that it will surely covet the territory of Samanid Persia. The Samanid state's Hajib, Prince Salah, will certainly have use for us.

For those unwilling to follow me, these five hundred dinars in silver coin will serve as severance pay, so that our time as lord and followers will not have been in vain."

These words were well spoken, and at once steadied the wavering morale of the troops. The guards all around declared one after another that they would continue to follow the Khagan.

After smoothly crossing a ridge that stretched across their path, Guo Guangyi's mood finally improved somewhat, for beyond this ridge, after passing through a gorge, they would reach the city of Talas.

Although twenty or thirty riders had been tailing them the whole way, Guo Guangyi was not anxious.

East of Hushui City there were nearly fifty thousand men, while those sons of Tang numbered only seven or eight thousand. Never mind killing them — even capturing them would take half a day. As long as no great army came in pursuit now, he could escape.

But just at this moment, when escape seemed within reach, Guo Guangyi suddenly felt the earth trembling. Wave after wave of dense hoofbeats came from ahead. The ambitious man felt as if struck by lightning; he let out a miserable cry and nearly fell from his horse.

From the gorge in the distance, group after group of cavalry kept emerging. Like bees pouring from a hive, in no time they covered the earth and filled the sky in every direction.

On the backs of the foremost riders were planted small banners of gold sun and moon on a silver-white field — clearly a great army from the Central Plains.

Lu Sanlang's youngest brother, Lu Dingbang, spurred his horse at the very front. This army was none other than the forty thousand elite cavalry under Bai Congxin.

They had reached Talas two days earlier and swiftly taken it by storm. Then they had learned of Guo Guangyi leading his army to Hushui City, and so had ridden through the night to get here.

Seeing a small cavalry force of one or two hundred men ahead, Lu Dingbang took them for Guo the bandit's scouting patrol, and at once ordered the roving cavalry under his command to surround and shoot them down.

Hu Zun saw this from afar. He hastily threw away his weapons, raised a gold sun-and-moon banner on a silver-white field, and galloped forward, shouting desperately: "Spare their lives! Spare their lives!"

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