Chapter 118: Field of View

Luo Rucai stood before the formation, his face ashen.

A blue-green jade hairpin and plain cloth bandages were wrapped around his head; he wore a dark-patterned bright red silk jacket over his upper body, thick black satin cotton trousers below, cinched tight at the waist by a leather belt with jade ornaments; his left foot was in a black-faced official shoe, his right in a straight-stitched boot of chamois leather.

Now the jade pendant hanging from his body trembled violently; from his clenched jaw to the soles of his feet, everything quivered. His left hand kept clutching at his right hand and right forearm — the hand that wore three rings of gold, silver, and bronze — as he stared ahead with neurotically wide eyes, fixed dead on what lay before him.

In the far distance, beyond the golden-yellow millet fields, government troops were silently shuttling back and forth, drawing up their battle lines.

Luo Rucai had plundered countless landlord mansions and stormed several fortified compounds, but he had never once fought frontier troops.

Though he had frantically gathered every scrap of news about the government forces, the army he had imagined was nothing like the one he now saw with his own eyes.

He knew that everyone behind him was terrified beyond measure.

Whether those swollen-bellied ghosts doomed to burst from overeating within days, or the silk-draped desperadoes who had followed him in plunder everywhere — every one of them was surely as afraid as he was.

A heart trembling in an empty chest — no one can control that kind of fear.

The only reason people had not yet fled was that he stood alone, all by himself, at the very front of the line.

He looked left and right: on the left was the Chuang Tatian contingent, on the right the She Tatian contingent.

The bandit troops of both contingents were not far from him, drawn up in square formations, their leaders clustered in the center, surrounded by sturdy soldiers bearing bows and blades.

In front of those leaders stood petty officers and weaker musketeers, all holding uniform Yan'an Garrison–made single-barrel and triple-barrel firelocks.

It was not that the musketeers were naturally weak; rather, under the orders of the Liu camp's drill instructors, they had been assigned firelocks precisely because they were weak.

Both those contingents had already begun their pre-battle exhortations, the soldiers now and then roaring out in unison. Watching them, Luo Rucai felt dazed and muddled, and thought he ought to say something to his own men too.

Though the allied troops on his flanks were frail and feeble, they still managed to slightly ease the tension in Luo Rucai's heart.

He turned around, cocked his thumb up, and grinned: "Those two bastards have hides thick as a city wall at its corner — actually hiding behind their little soldiers."

His gaze swept past the dense forest of spears among the famine refugees and toward the cavalry prowling in the rear. He clenched his jaw, suddenly tore the jade pendant from his waist, and hurled it to the ground. To his followers he said with a laugh: "All scared, huh? No matter. Listen to your old man here — whether you die or not is fate. If you're meant to die, you can't dodge it. I'm standing at the very front; if the government cannons fire, I'll be the first to go."

"In times like these, what's dying? Look at yourselves — you don't even have a suit of armor. If you don't die today, you'll die tomorrow."

"We stand here a while, the government troops don't advance, and tonight back at camp, Second Master Liu gives us fifty suits of cloth-faced iron armor. If the government troops do advance, and I die, my uncle will lead you. If my uncle dies too, Yang Chengzu will lead you. Take a cannonball, and Second Master Liu gives us a hundred suits of cloth-faced armor."

"Your parents, wives, and children have all been sent away. Today I'm just bringing you here to stand. When the time comes, those with bows and crossbows, aim true — don't shoot your old man. If Heaven wants to take me, let it take me. But before Heaven takes me, starting with me, whoever runs gets killed! Alright, all of you, sit down."

In truth, Luo Rucai's order that whoever ran would be killed was basically useless to his subordinates.

The famine refugees in his formation, bearing their long spears, could barely stay on their feet; even if they wanted to run, they couldn't.

Not to mention that a considerable number of them had swollen bellies, looking for all the world like they'd eaten too much Guanyin clay — they might drop dead just standing there.

Getting them to sit still was far easier than running.

At the single command "All of you, sit down," a great swath of them collapsed to the ground with a clatter.

Just then — Boom! — the cannons on the opposite side roared.

Three heavy cannons fired.

A solid iron ball came howling through the air with a sharp shriek, whooshing past Luo Rucai. It sheared through three long spears, sent the spear-carrying refugees who had just sat down tumbling and rolling, then slammed down behind the formation, gouging up a slab of earth, bounced up again, and swept backward for more than ten paces before finally burying itself in the loess soil.

Liu Chengzong, watching clearly through his telescope from the ridge, exclaimed to Cao Yao in admiration: "The government troops fired, and the left and right formations fell into chaos — officers are trying to restore order. Only the center formation didn't break... That Cao Cao didn't even turn his head. What a ruthless man!"

He handed the telescope to Cao Yao, who after looking was also full of praise.

But the telescope's magnification was low by modern standards, so he could not see that the soldiers in the center formation were all clutching their heads and cowering, trembling, nor could he see the expression on Luo Rucai's face.

Knowing that sooner or later you will die and being prepared to die is one thing; being afraid when it's right in front of you is another.

It wasn't that Luo Rucai didn't turn his head — he wanted to turn and look back.

But his legs had gone weak. The moment he turned halfway, his legs went so weak he nearly dropped to his knees. He couldn't turn around.

He had heard of cannons countless times before, but this was the first time being shot at, and it was truly terrifying.

A fist-sized iron ball, whistling past with a whoosh, smashing into the ground and pounding the loess hard — what would happen if it hit a person?

Yet Luo Rucai still stood.

His legs were weak because he was afraid — truly afraid — but kneeling would be admitting defeat.

Fear is an uncontrollable instinct; surrender is a personal choice.

So he drew his blade, pressed both hands on the pommel to brace himself, stiffened his neck, and the words that came out were all a quavering tremble: "All of you, lift your heads and look — I'm still standing!"

Boom! Another blast from behind made him flinch and hunch his shoulders. The cannonball plowed through the formation, smashed one man's shoulder to pieces, then ricocheted into another's head, crushing the skull like a walnut and splattering blood everywhere, before finally threading through a gap in the crowd and caving in the chest of a desperado at the very rear.

The refugee whose shoulder had been smashed collapsed in the formation, screaming uncontrollably. The surrounding refugees scrambled away on all fours as if fleeing the plague, shoving outward. At last, someone could no longer bear the pressure and, shrieking, pushed through the crowd and fled toward the rear.

Luo Rucai, from who knows where, suddenly found strength — his legs had power again. He bellowed: "Come back! All of you, come back!"

Seeing his men stand up one after another and run for the rear, he drew his bow and made as if to shoot. Only then did he halt the formation's slide toward collapse.

The three who had fled did not go far; they had run only a dozen or so paces before slowly retreating back.

At its widest, this river valley was no more than eight hundred paces across. Yang Yao, bearing Marshal Ma's banner, had his frontier cavalry spread out in a horizontal line three hundred paces wide. There was simply nowhere for them to run.

Yet although Luo Rucai's troops had the worst combat strength and the weakest will to fight, in the eyes of both Liu Chengzong and Li Bei on the other side, they were the contingent that performed the best.

In Liu Guoneng's formation, men had started running the moment the cannons sounded. Not a single cannonball had landed in his formation, yet over thirty men had fled.

Li Wanqing's side took one cannon hit and, though there was no mass rout, fell into chaos for quite a while, as if the soldiers were all urging Li Wanqing to retreat.

Only here with Luo Rucai: those who truly wanted to run had no strength to run, and in the end, only three fled.

On the hillside, Liu Chengzong swept his telescope across the three formations. The situation was far better than he had imagined. Then he turned his gaze toward the enemy lines.

The government troops had a single square formation at the front; cavalry, wagons, and officers bearing flags were arrayed in the center. Infantry defended the perimeter, digging trenches on the spot, with four small cannons placed on each side.

Behind them, the main central army was moving wooden barricades and ropes, likewise digging trenches outside their formation. Four thousand-jin breech-loading falconets were positioned on the four sides of the central army. Directly up front, three heavy cannons mounted on two-wheeled gun carriages had already been loaded with powder.

It looked as though Li Bei was in no hurry to engage.

Liu Chengzong lowered his telescope and asked his elder brother: "Brother, when the Dashing King sent word earlier, how many men did Li Bei have?"

"Three squad commanders. Casualties from battle have been limited — around twelve or thirteen hundred."

"I recall the Dashing King also said there were civilian laborers recruited from Yanchuan to haul the artillery train and transport supplies. There should be at least another eight or nine hundred. Over there now, it looks like only thirteen or fourteen hundred men."

Liu Chengzu frowned at this, then raised his arm and pointed toward the mountains to the southeast: "Could the laborers be on the other side of the mountain, and the army formation facing us is all soldiers?"

Liu Chengzong shook his head and handed the telescope over: "Take a look and you'll understand. There are unarmored laborers mixed in. Li Bei has split his forces."

Liu Chengzu took the telescope and couldn't help being shocked.

Watching a battle normally makes it hard to spot clues, but with the aid of an instrument, it was very easy to see clearly the condition of the soldiers in Li Bei's formation — in both the front and rear square formations there were quite a few civilian laborers not wearing armor.

Liu Chengzu understood this sort of thing at a glance: "Mounted troops of three squad commanders, infantry of less than two squad commanders. Lion, quickly send someone to Coiling Dragon Creek with a message — Li Bei has one squad commander chasing after King Gao's infantry."

The terrain here was very simple: the official road followed the river valley from south to north, passed through Hequ and upward, then at Gangu Post turned west toward Coiling Dragon Creek.

There was another road in the mountains, climbing peaks and crossing ridges, rough and hard to travel, passable only by infantry, and it also required a considerable detour; in the end one would see its exit in the southern mountains where Coiling Dragon Creek flows into the Yan River.

Gao Yingxiang's infantry took exactly that road, abandoning mules and horses and carrying grain on their backs, taking a difficult path in an attempt to evade Li Bei's troops.

At this very moment, Li Bei's three squad commanders were one man short — so there was only one possibility: someone in Li Bei's force was familiar with the terrain. The main force was stalling for time here, while a small force had entered the mountains.

"Wei Qian'er, quickly send men along the official road to Coiling Dragon Creek with a message. Heaven-Scraping Monkey's men are resting over there. Tell him to set up defenses on the southern mountain road and cover King Gao's men. The enemy may have five hundred infantry."

But this was only a guess. Wei Qian'er received the order and was about to leave when Liu Chengzong called him back, saying: "Send pond cavalry to scout the mountains west of the river."

One of Li Bei's units had jumped to the outer line and vanished from their field of view — this undoubtedly put great pressure on Liu Chengzong.

No one could guarantee what that unit's mission was.

If Li Bei was ambitious, he might pursue and strike King Gao's infantry to seize baggage, or circle around and raid the two units at Hequ to form an encirclement, catching them in a pincer attack in the river valley. Possible.

If Li Bei was cautious, he might abandon the pursuit of King Gao's unit, directly infiltrate the mountains west of Hequ, wait for the right moment, and coordinate with the main force to attack them. Also very possible.

This was not the first major battle Liu Chengzong and the others had taken part in. In the past they had all kinds of missions — some as low-level squad leaders, some as the most dangerous vanguard shock troops.

But those were all partial engagements. This was the first battle where they truly stood at the overall command level and directed it themselves.

"If I survive this battle, when I get back I'll set up a dedicated unit of orderlies."

Liu Chengzong shook his head and said to those beside him: "Our armor is the same as the government troops', and our banners are extremely simple. There are only a few thousand men here, front to back, and every formation's orders rely entirely on men running on two legs. If Li Bei's men are hiding in the mountains, a single rider could slip in and ride up to the front formation — believe me, one sentence could make us lose."

It was extremely simple. All it took was one cavalryman riding up to any formation of Liu Guoneng, Li Wanqing, or Luo Rucai and shouting, 'The general orders a retreat.'

And they'd be finished.

Liu Chengzong sighed. This battle had only just begun, and the strongest impression it gave him was the inadequacy of their own soft power — and all tactics and stratagems were built upon strength.

Li Bei's three heavy cannons fired another two salvos. Having passed through the initial terror, the soldiers in the left and right formations had already adapted to this not-very-dense bombardment.

A difference in the information each side possessed created a small misunderstanding for Li Bei.

Luo Rucai's unit in the central formation fit Li Bei's impression of bandit elite troops perfectly.

Dressed in gaudy colors at the front of the formation, they sat on the ground once they reached their position, the entire formation extremely orderly, the leader standing ramrod straight at the front — the very picture of stubborn, never-say-die outlaws.

Weren't these bandit elites?

Looking at the left and right formations by contrast, they wore the studded armor of guard-battalion troops, and even a slight bombardment showed signs of breaking and disorder, relying entirely on the central formation's immobility to steady their own formations.

So in two salvos and six cannonballs, the first was evenly distributed, but the second time all three heavy cannons concentrated fire on Luo Rucai's unit.

The two cannonballs that hit once again plowed bloody paths through the formation. The four cannonballs alone, one after another, had already directly caused sixteen casualties in Luo Rucai's unit.

What's more, Luo Rucai, who had the largest target profile standing at the front of the formation, was so terrified he wet his pants.

He peed a little, then held it in.

He still stood with his back to the enemy troops. The waist saber planted in the ground could no longer support him; he had switched to a long spear.

On the other side of the millet field, atop the earthen mound built from excavated trench earth, Li Bei gazed from afar at that figure standing before the formation holding a spear and sighed: "Tell the artillery to stop. We don't have much gunpowder. Relying on just three cannons, it's very hard to shake them."

In his understanding, if the central army did not break, it was very difficult for the two wings to rout directly.

But if he advanced further, advancing to where the four breech-loading cannons could also concentrate fire on the formation, his troops would come under bombardment from the enemy's hilltop positions.

This truly was a beautiful misunderstanding.

In reality, it was the units of Liu Guoneng and Li Wanqing on the left and right that were the true display of high morale and courage.

"Why did the cannon fire stop?"

The government troops ceasing their bombardment let Luo Rucai breathe a huge sigh of relief, but at the same time he began to grow afraid again.

He was worried the government troops would advance.

In just the time it took for those four salvos, more than ten of the big-bellied famine refugees under his command had already stopped breathing.

Those who ate themselves to death were nearly outnumbering those killed by cannon fire.

Right now he was not afraid of the government troops bombarding from afar — fear aside, it was the government troops advancing for close combat that truly terrified him.

Once the government troops advanced and the three formations engaged, half his men might not even be able to stand up.

Fortunately, the government troops had no intention of advancing.

Luo Rucai, his body soaked through by sweat who knew how many times today, let out a long breath and raised his eyes toward the cannon-mounting hill, feeling only dizzy and lightheaded, incredibly vertiginous.

Soon, Wei Qian'er's subordinates sent word: riding ten li southwest from the northwest mountain pass along the mountain path, they had found no trace of the enemy. However, someone who climbed a hilltop was waving the enemy-sighted flag; the number was temporarily unknown.

Immediately after, another rider came to report: on the other side of the mountain, there was indeed a unit of government troops marching northwest. When spotted, they were crossing a mountain path, and only over a hundred men were seen.

Liu Chengzong clapped his hands together heavily in front of him: "That settles it! Li Bei wants to encircle us!"

Gao Yingxiang's face showed worry. He sighed and said: "Who knows whether Dirty Monkey's men can hold them off."

"They can't hold them. Heaven-Scraping Monkey only has about a thousand men. King Gao's mounted troops have been fighting for days on end and probably have little strength left once off their warhorses. King Gao has eight hundred riders, three formations outside, plus my brother's five hundred-plus men — even if Li Bei advances, we can block him for a while."

Liu Chengzong weighed the forces at his disposal in his mind, took a deep breath, and said: "I'll go. I'll take the mounted troops, abandon the horses, cross the mountain, and hang behind this government unit. We'll devour them, then turn back — will Li Bei's eight hundred men still be so hard to deal with?"