Chapter 120: A Strange Request

Swoosh, swoosh!

The two Han brothers stood at the very front of the formation, drawing their bows and loosing arrows.

The two finest horse archers, shooting on foot, sent precise feathered shafts toward the village entrance.

At a distance of just over thirty paces, the two drew and released — muffled grunts and shrieks came from the village entrance, but then two more government soldiers, arrows already jutting from their bodies, would appear and shoot back through the pain.

At night, accurate shooting was nearly impossible; whether a man went down depended on luck, and sometimes an arrow struck armor without felling him — there was really nothing to be done about it.

Thunk, thunk!

Facing the arrows the government troops shot back, the Han brothers neither dodged nor flinched. Beside them stood fellow household troops of Liu Chengzong — the Zhong brothers, both Fourth-Class Meritorious Soldiers, who held rectangular shields in front of the two men, sealing off their front completely.

Liu Chengzong, in the center of the formation, shook his head in admiration. His own archery was excellent, but compared to the Han brothers, it still fell a little short. He knew how difficult such marksmanship was in the dark of night.

Two accurate, powerful archers could make a military assault as formidable as a tiger sprouting wings.

The four highly skilled household troops advanced at the front, and the four sentry units followed close behind, quickly closing to twenty paces.

"Pass the word: forward sentries, one arrow every three paces."

Liu Chengzong held his bow in hand. At this distance, by moonlight and firelight, one could already make out the figures of the government soldiers in the village.

The men had walked twenty or thirty paces under a rain of arrows. Though their padded armor was decent, several had still been hit, and now a pent-up fury smoldered in their hearts, awaiting only this order.

Almost the instant the order was relayed, the border troops of the forward sentries, as one, drew their bows to the full and loosed at the dimly visible figures at the village entrance.

Some, blocked behind the wall of men by the narrow road, stood on tiptoe just to loose an arrow through the gaps.

A volley of feathered shafts shot forth together — a government soldier, already bristling with several arrows, was finally struck in the cheek and collapsed screaming.

Another man, just targeted by Han Shipan, took one look at his fallen comrade, turned, and fled northward.

At this, no enemy at the eastern village entrance dared shoot back at them any longer.

The four Vanguard men quickened their pace, and the entire formation sped up. They crossed the first narrow trench, soon crossed the second, and strode straight into the village.

The moment they entered, Zhong Hu, holding his shield at the very front, fell back, shouting, "Leopard, fall back!"

But the words came too late. From both sides, a string of cracks rang out almost simultaneously, and gunpowder smoke billowed at the village entrance.

Fire lances!

Zhong Hu, at the very front, had no time to dodge. Several lead balls instantly punched through his long shield and struck his body. With a muffled grunt, he tumbled to the ground.

Zhong Bao fared slightly better — he had been advancing more slowly. A lead ball grazed past him and shot slanting into the sky. Seeing this, his eyes nearly split with fury, and he bellowed from behind his long shield, "Brother!"

Liu Chengzong was even more enraged — he had been a mere two steps from death. He roared, "Left and right sentries, launch the flying thunder!"

An answering shout came from the formation, and a moment later, with two dull thumps, two small cylinders arced into the sky, tracing parabolic curves as they crashed down into the village.

Moments later, an enormous blast erupted from within the village, and the sounds of men screaming and writhing in agony were unceasing.

Liu Chengzong said, "Pass the word: rear sentry, drag the wounded back. The remaining three sentries, enter the village and split their ground formation!"

To himself, he thought: those damnable shells — in the government troops' hands, only one in two ever went off, and now that they'd fallen into his own hands, the ignition rate was still exactly the same.

"Aye!"

"Aye!"

The three sentries advanced. Before they could charge into the village, another thunderous blast erupted. This flying-thunder shell hadn't malfunctioned — its fuse was simply a bit too long. By now the government soldiers had all cleared away, and the explosion in the village drew almost no reaction.

Seizing this moment, the three sentries of troops rushed into the village. The left and right sentries quickly formed their ranks and loosed arrows at the government reinforcements coming from the north and south, cutting the government force stationed in the village clean in two.

"Hold formation! No disorder!"

Liu Chengzong stood at the village entrance. Wang Wenxiu of the rear sentry and Yang Yao of the forward sentry led their men into a three-rank horizontal line, sealing off the village. Gao Xian of the right sentry deployed troops to guard Liu Chengzong's flanks as a reserve force.

Feng Rang's left sentry dispersed into squads of ten, with four-man teams dragging wounded border soldiers out of the village while fresh men filled the gaps to maintain the battle line.

Zhong Hu, struck by shot, was dragged back. Liu Chengzong snatched a torch and held it over him. A rough glance showed three holes punched through his padded armor; the iron vambrace on his left arm was also dented inward, and blood was seeping from the arm beneath the armor.

He asked urgently, "How is it?"

Zhong Hu was still conscious, his eyes red with pain. He drew a trembling breath and shook his head. "Body — body's fine. Hand — arm took a glancing hit."

Hearing this, Liu Chengzong looked more carefully at the padded armor on his body and let out a breath of relief.

The lead balls had torn through the outer fabric layer of the padded armor, but after penetrating the fabric, none had gone further — all had been stopped by the iron armor plates. Beneath the padded armor was the combat jacket serving as an inner lining, so his torso was largely unharmed.

His left arm, however, had taken the full brunt — bracing the wooden shield, hit at close range by several fire lances, the impact force had all gone into the arm, dislocating it. Moreover, one ball had pierced the wooden shield and struck the arm, making that the most serious wound.

But this was already cause enough for gratitude. Liu Chengzong gripped his left hand and grinned. "Yanshui Pass saved you. Get him back quickly and set that arm... Ha, you've got one hell of a lucky life!"

Had they not seized a vast quantity of government armor at Yanshui Pass, stripping and redistributing enough good armor plates to outfit the troops, that single volley would certainly have claimed Zhong Hu's life right here.

The fighting in the village continued. Wang Wenxiu's unit had already formed ranks and was advancing south, deploying his five squads in rotation.

Three squads held the line, while two twenty-man squads on the left and right, led by their squad leaders, surged toward the flanks, swiftly seizing the civilian houses on both sides, clambering onto the roof ridges, and treading across the tiles to shoot at the enemy with powerful bows.

To the north, Yang Yao's unit split directly into five squads, advancing in five columns. Any resistance they met along the way was killed on the spot. Whichever column encountered government troops too troublesome to deal with would simply delay them for a moment.

Once the flanking squads completed their encirclement, they would combine forces and attack together.

The four sentries of border troops coordinated with seamless precision — two sentries on the main assault, one in reserve, and one dragging the wounded to the rear on the spot.

It gave Liu Chengzong a genuine, tangible taste of what it felt like to be a Battalion Commander.

Arranging several thousand men at Cannon-Mount Hill had never felt as satisfying as maneuvering these five hundred.

In the pitch-black village, friend and foe alike were hidden in darkness. At just over ten paces from the enemy, bows and fire lances erupted together, and then cold steel clashed.

Neither side had cannons — this was when his men held the greatest advantage.

Of course, even if there had been small field guns, his four sentries wouldn't have been at a disadvantage. If the government troops could bring cannons, so could they.

They had never lacked for small field guns; what they had always lacked were heavy field cannons exceeding five hundred catties.

Before long, one of Gao Xian's soldiers ran over and reported, "General, Sentry Commander Yang of the forward sentry sends word: the government commander is not in the north. They can be routed in one charge!"

Not in the north — then he must be in the south.

"Go tell Sentry Commander Yang to hold on a little longer. Once the north collapses, the south will surely try to break out. Have Sentry Commander Wang prepare to pursue, and Sentry Commander Gao stand ready to reinforce either north or south. Feng Rang and Wei Qian'er, take your troops and follow me — we'll set up a blocking position on the southern mountain path and intercept any government troops along the way."

Having said this, Liu Chengzong raised a hand again. "Send someone to find Skyward Monkey. Tell him to bring me four hundred mules."

The two officers acknowledged the order and each went to relay it.

At the same time, runners among the border troops sprinted toward Heaven-Raising Monkey's position, reporting the situation on both the north and south flanks so he could order his forces to coordinate their actions.

Liu Chengzong led his men toward the southern village entrance. The fighting here was clearly far more brutal. Heaven-Raising Monkey's various chieftains had occupied the fields and ditches, directing their men in rallying again and again to launch assaults on the village.

Heaven-Raising Monkey's subordinates were far better at executing orders than they appeared.

But they were truly far too outmatched in raw strength. Assault after assault failed to break through the government troops' defensive line, so much so that their so-called charges amounted to nothing more than loosing arrows and crossbow bolts from twenty or thirty paces away.

Hits were already hard to come by in the pitch-black night, and they were further limited by the insufficient power of their own bows and crossbows and the overly complete armor protection of the government troops. Even when they did hit a soldier, wounding him was easy, but quickly stripping him of combat effectiveness was very difficult.

As soon as two or three men in a squad were struck by arrows, the entire squad would pull back.

The soldiers' already meager stamina was entirely spent in these back-and-forth advances and retreats.

Liu Chengzong assembled his ranks outside the village. He had the reconnaissance soldiers stand in place while the left-flank border troops stepped forward, each picking one of them to form two-man teams. These were then merged under the left-flank's command structure into forty-man units, which were deployed in separate squads to set an ambush on the village's southern side.

In truth, this so-called ambush could hardly be called ingenious — nor did it need to be.

The open fields outside the village held nothing but the bonfires the government troops had set thirty paces from the village entrance and the torches raised high by Heaven-Raising Monkey's forces. Beyond that, everything was pitch-black.

Forty or fifty paces from the village entrance, only moonlight spread across the land. Walk any farther and you could see nothing at all. Never mind dispersing to intercept the enemy — not intercepting your own men was already a stroke of luck.

Liu Chengzong said to Feng Rang and Wei Qian'er, "The enemy will break sooner or later. When they flee, they'll scatter. Make sure the men remember: even when dispersing to pursue, stay in pairs. Kill anyone you find alone. The password... 'Your grandpa's here — why haven't you surrendered yet?'"

Wei Qian'er had never been a soldier before. Now, having tasted the benefits of the border army's organization, he grew worried when he saw Liu Chengzong considering dispersing the troops to intercept the enemy. "General, if we scatter, can we beat the government troops?"

"Good question!"

Liu Chengzong had always believed that a leader could be ignorant of anything else, but he absolutely had to know his own side's strengths and weaknesses.

He understood his own men very well, so he smiled and said, "This is exactly the kind of opportunity I've been trying to create — chaotic fighting on all sides. That suits us best. Think about it: if the government troops fight with discipline and we fight with discipline too, four hundred and some against four hundred and some, no matter who wins, the losses won't be small."

Wei Qian'er nodded at this, and heard Liu Chengzong continue, "If you can fight with discipline against an undisciplined enemy, victory is certain. But in the pitch-black night, it's too hard to create that while pursuing a fleeing enemy. Only when both sides have lost all discipline can you barely manage to create it."

In truth, Liu Chengzong also wanted to create a situation where the government troops lost all organization while his own men still held formation. But that was simply too difficult — only by bottling them up on both sides of the village was there any chance of that.

Yet if they trapped the government troops inside the village, even if there was brief chaos, everyone would quickly rally behind their officers again. It would still inevitably devolve into a desperate, grinding melee.

"When both sides have lost all discipline, and both are border troops, how do you judge who wins? By who's eaten more dry rations." At this, Liu Chengzong couldn't help the corners of his mouth lifting. "We've eaten more dry rations."

The government troops on the village's southern side were now under attack from both front and rear. The bandit soldiers charging toward the village soon discovered that the enemy's resistance against them had stiffened. In mere moments, a volley of fire lances erupted at the village entrance, felling several men in an instant, and another bandit squad collapsed and fled back.

This time, that squad of firearm troops did not withdraw. Instead, one man brandished his blade and leaped forward, shouting taunts and challenges at the bandit soldiers illuminated by the surrounding bonfires: "You pack of thieves — is there a single one among you who can hit my foot?"

Liu Chengzong knew full well what this meant. The government troops inside the village were under too much pressure on the northern side and couldn't hold out. They had come to the southern side to issue a challenge, seeking to crush and intimidate the bandits' morale, thereby creating favorable conditions for their own breakout charge.

He said to those beside him, "Have every squad prepare. They're about to charge out."

At the same time, the two bandit squads up front really did have men cursing furiously and shooting arrows at that government soldier.

That soldier was bold indeed. He stood motionless just over thirty paces away, with several firearm troops behind him holding three-eyed fire lances at a distance, guarding him — the range judged with extreme precision.

The moment any bandit soldier crossed past the bonfires, they would enter the distance at which a three-eyed fire lance could kill a man.

And beyond the bonfires' range, the bandits shooting scattered arrows were far less accurate than the three-eyed fire lances.

Well, damn it all — that government soldier really did pull it off. There truly wasn't a single man who could hit his foot.

Watching this made Liu Chengzong's hands itch. He said to Zhong Bao, "Dare to carry a shield and cover me for a trip over there?"

Zhong Bao's elder brother had just been wounded, but this fellow wasn't the least bit afraid. He hefted his long rectangular shield and said, "Go ahead, General — what's there to be afraid of!"

The two of them made their way into the bandit ranks behind the bonfires. That government soldier was still up front shouting and jeering. Liu Chengzong nocked an arrow, drew the bow full with his thumb, and shouted, "Watch this!"

He released. The government soldier, caught completely off guard, was still standing motionless. The feathered arrow flew thirty paces and drove straight into his black boot. The pain made the man cry out on the spot.

But that pained cry was instantly drowned out by the cheers erupting from the bandit ranks.

What Liu Chengzong hadn't expected was that this government soldier was a real tough bastard. Even with an arrow in his foot, he kept raging without pause.

He couldn't see who had shot the arrow from the other side of the bonfires. All he knew was that his mission was to crush the bandits' morale. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he simply bellowed, "Which bastard shot your grandpa? If you've got the guts, hit me in the face!"

Well, damn!

What a strange request!

He had never heard such an outrageous demand.

Liu Chengzong immediately nocked another arrow, took two steps forward, drew full, and loosed. The arrow nailed the man square in the nose. With a miserable shriek, he clutched his face and collapsed.

The surrounding bandits erupted in cheers even more fervent than before. Liu Chengzong glanced at his bow and chuckled softly. For him, wasn't this just a matter of having a full stomach and a working hand?

Though this had boosted the bandits' morale somewhat, Liu Chengzong did not let down his guard. He said to the leader of the bandit hundred-man squad, "Have the men pull back. The government troops will send out their firearm troops."

He too retreated under Zhong Bao's cover. He had only just withdrawn a few steps when he saw two ranks of firearm troops — some with single-eyed, some with three-eyed fire lances — advancing outward. The front rank knelt, the rear rank stood. They clamped the fire lances under their arms and fired two volleys of lead pellets. In an instant, the village entrance was choked with gunpowder smoke.

In that moment, at least seven or eight lead pellets struck Zhong Bao's long rectangular shield, producing a rapid succession of thudding sounds.

Fortunately, this time they were farther away, and the government troops had loaded each barrel with two or three scattering pellets. The force wasn't enough to penetrate the shield.

After this, a rank of government soldiers wielding eight-foot short spears burst out of the smoke, shouting and charging. The main body of government troops, behind them, formed ranks and rushed out.

The government troops were breaking out!

Liu Chengzong retreated as he drew his bow and shot down a spearman. The Han brothers from the earthen slope also came to provide cover. Their feet moved swiftly, their powerful bows never pausing, and in the blink of an eye they shot down three men.

The five squads of soldiers lying in ambush all around launched their intercepting attacks on the government troops at nearly the same instant.

???