Chapter 270: The Hunter Chief

The cave was pitch black. Daibeng Daiben sat silently in the shadows, his back against the damp mountain wall.

Opposite him, several Baili nobles who had lost the battle wore equally dejected expressions; one man slowly sharpened his blade on a stone.

In a dark corner by the cave entrance, Daibeng's household slave lay prone, cautiously observing the situation outside. Deeper within, a faint glow leaked from around a bend — Master Danba was butchering a horse to roast, choking so badly he coughed and wept in succession.

Victors on a battlefield are always full of order, while defeated commanders feel only chaos and helpless bewilderment.

Master Sumang came out from around the bend, covering his nose. As he walked, he glanced at his nephew roasting meat and sighed inwardly.

Hard days lay ahead for Danba. The biggest loser in this battle was not Baili King Donyo Dorje, but Danba.

He had lost his land forever. After burying two thousand of the Baili King's troops, even if Danba's territory were retaken by the Baili army, it would never be returned to him.

Sumang walked up to Daibeng Daiben and said, "Daiben, that captured slave has talked. That Han army has two hundred and forty men. It's not an army — their leader is called Grand Marshal."

Daibeng Daiben had lost the battle, but he was not angry because of it. His silence was simply worry for his lord the Baili King; the opponent was stronger than he had imagined.

First he frowned in confusion, then grew a little angry. "Not an army? Sumang, I respect you greatly."

Two hundred and forty men casually formed a horizontal line, faced a cavalry charge without a single man retreating, and even advanced two steps forward. Even the best infantry would struggle to judge the distance of a cavalry charge as they did.

These men set down their lances, raised their firelocks, and in a perfectly fluid sequence fired, reloaded, and completed volley fire. The Baili King has three hundred personal warriors who drill this as well, and they are not as proficient.

After the infantry square was routed, half stayed in position to block the charging routed troops, while the other half mounted warhorses, leveled their lances, and launched a charge. When lances snapped, they drew goose-quill sabers; those without sabers brandished three-eyed guns — transforming in an instant into masterful horseback warriors.

They formed several mounted squads of twenty to thirty riders, thrusting and shooting at each Dingben squad from the flanks. Their morale was especially high when dealing with Dokham cavalry. In the span of one ke, seven Dingben were captured alive and two hundred horse and foot were routed.

Another twenty-four Han soldiers on horseback chased over three hundred men from one end of the battlefield to the other. Had he not sent in his Fierce Tiger Heroes as personal guards, those madmen would still be pursuing.

As it turned out, he saved over three hundred worthless men, who never thought to turn back and help, only fleeing with heads down and plunging straight into the Mongol troops' pocket formation.

All sixty of his Fierce Tiger Heroes were surrounded in the melee by Han cavalry twice their number. Not one came back.

That should have been an evenly matched fight. Though the Fierce Tiger Heroes were fewer, the Han soldiers' cavalry lances had long since shattered in successive engagements, and goose-quill sabers could do little against their lamellar and chain armor.

But those three-eyed guns — those three-eyed guns were truly vile.

One after another, Fierce Tiger Heroes who had won merit for the Baili King leveled their lances and charged the enemy. At seven or eight paces — just seven or eight paces, the distance of a warhorse lifting its hoof one extra time.

With a bang, that black, ugly thing belched smoke.

Two or three lead pellets flew from a single tube, either striking the warhorse so it reared in pain, or wounding a Fierce Tiger Hero so he toppled from the saddle.

They would even circle a fallen hero once. If the man was dead, they ignored him; if he tried to rise, they put another shot into his head.

If not for Danba, who was roasting meat, knowing the territory well and leading them fleeing into the mountains to shake off the pursuers, Daibeng Daiben would by now be eating the hot meal prepared for captives.

An opponent like this, and you, Master Sumang, say they are not an army? Daibeng wanted Sumang to explain it to him — what the hell is an army, then?

Sumang had no idea why Daibeng's face could change so fast.

But he had no choice, so he continued explaining: "Originally, every fifteen of them belonged to a hundred-man company, sent as the Grand Marshal's reinforcements for Basang. They were thrown together in haste, without even officers."

Daibeng turned his face aside, propped his chin on his hand, and thought for a long time before turning back. "No officers?"

So he had been defeated by a ragtag band of stragglers?

Sumang more or less guessed why Daibeng's face had changed — reality had probably dealt a harsh blow to the old general's pride. He hurriedly added, "There were — there were twenty-one officers."

A ragtag band of stragglers with twenty-one officers. Daibeng let out a click of his tongue and leaned back slightly. "That's more like it. I knew it — how could there be no officers... What is it?"

Seeing Daibeng so gratified that the enemy had officers, Sumang was unsure whether he should say what came next.

Only after Daibeng Daiben pressed him twice more did Sumang answer, his gaze drifting: "That officer is a hunter chief. He wasn't on the battlefield during the fight. The night before last, he took a hundred hunters and went out. The captured slave doesn't know where he is either."

The "hunter chief" he spoke of was Dai Daozi. Because many places here lacked roads and required climbing high to see far, hunters were responsible for scouting during battles.

In the slave's eyes, Dai Daozi and the outpost soldiers, always running off and vanishing from sight, were just like a band of hunters.

Daibeng asked in astonishment, "Then who was holding the banner?"

"A recruit — probably a recruit. The veterans always mocked him."

Daibeng Daiben shut his eyes in anguish.

What kind of mess was this... The officer not on the battlefield, a ragtag band of stragglers.

Any general who encountered such a situation with an enemy army would laugh in his dreams.

And yet, he had been defeated by such men — twice.

Daibeng had not forgotten the black smoke rising from the valley on the opposite bank. He reckoned that was the handiwork of that officer who had run off, and it was precisely because of that black smoke that he had not fled toward Sumang's territory.

Just as Daibeng Daiben was busy being dejected, Danba came over carrying roast horse meat on a stone slab. Before he could get close, his uncle shot him a look signaling that this was not the time to speak.

Danba set the horse meat down and withdrew to the side without a word.

His uncle had explained the current situation to him: the Baili King would not yet vent his anger on him, but Danba's loss of his territory was a foregone conclusion.

In this war, all of Kham was teetering on the brink. Whether Sumang's territory, on the front line of the war, could hold out was still unknown. His uncle could not protect him forever.

Here in this cave was a good chance to curry favor with Daibeng Daiben. If he could win Daibeng's regard, perhaps Danba might still have a chance to rise again in the future.

Just then, the household slave who had been lying motionless at the cave entrance ran to Daiben and cried, "Master, troops — troops are heading toward Danba Manor."

The dejected Daibeng Daiben and several nobles rose hastily at these words and ran to the cave entrance to look out.

Across the mountain grassland where night had fallen, a large force bearing torches high spread out, forming blurry lines of fire serpents across the grass, winding their way toward Danba Manor.

They came from the direction of Nangqian — Han reinforcements had arrived.

The main force of the Lion Army was on the march.

By nightfall, they were only one ke's walk from Danba Manor.

On the road, Liu Chengzong received word from Dai Daozi that the Baili army had mustered over two thousand troops to attack Danba Manor, which made him sense something unusual.

Danba was a small territory; the manor was hardly valuable, and its location was no military strongpoint — not worth mobilizing such a large force.

He did not know why the Baili King would dispatch a Daiben army here, but whatever the reason behind it, having a Daiben army here was always a good thing.

The Baili King's total forces were limited. Two thousand more men here meant two thousand fewer elsewhere, saving his own army the trouble of searching everywhere in unfamiliar territory.

To this end, he had dispatched Baiyan to take the western road straight for Chamdo, while personally leading the main army to provide support, and ordered Mounted Battalion Commander Zhang Tianlin to lead troops in a rapid relief advance.

He had not expected that before Zhang Tianlin even arrived, Dai Daozi would already bring news of victory at the front — and two victories at that, which greatly heartened Liu Chengzong.

He had specifically ordered Dai Daozi to come and recount the course of the battle to him on the road.

After hearing it, well… Liu Chengzong no longer felt like praising Dai Daozi.

Aside from the commander doing a soldier's job and the soldier doing the commander's work, his troops all fought very well.

Crooked Beam's performance delighted him beyond expectation, but what Dai Daozi did couldn't be called bad either — the battle results were very rich, with not a single casualty, over seven hundred slave soldiers recruited through surrender, and more than four hundred dan of enemy army grain seized.

It could only be said that his choices were not quite the same as a normal person's.

Riding at the front, Liu Chengzong asked, "What were you thinking, leaving the army behind and crossing the river to penetrate deep behind enemy lines?"

Dai Daozi lagged half a step behind and paused for a moment before answering, "Commander, that's what I've always done."

"True, but didn't you consider that your orders were to lead troops and help Basang control the army?"

Dai Daozi scratched his face. He had many explanations he could offer for this question.

He had discovered the enemy crossing the river while scouting and had originally intended to wait behind the enemy lines for a chance to strike, but when he saw an even better opportunity, he attacked the grain storage camp on the opposite bank instead.

Besides, his men didn't share a common language with the others and weren't part of the same training system, so staying at the Danba estate would have been of little practical use.

But Dai Daozi said none of that. He simply agreed at once, saying he wouldn't wander far again.

He had already earned merit on his own, and what he had done was a good thing. The Grand Marshal's words weren't harsh either — it was probably just a casual remark. If he talked back and turned this into something bad, that would be far worse.

Liu Chengzong had indeed spoken casually. War was too complex.

So complex that the same situation, with different approaches, sometimes led to the same outcome.

Take the single issue of water sources when encamping: some dispersed their forces to camp near water and lost; others concentrated their forces far from water and also lost.

Matters of life and death are the most complex art in the world. The same tactic can bring victory for one and defeat for another. Under the right basic conditions, sometimes even charging in recklessly can win.

The one eternal, unchanging truth of war is victory. No matter how the fighting goes, as long as you win, later generations will come up with their own explanations and lessons to learn.

Win, and you're an immortal famed general; lose, and you're a cautionary tale.

But learning — learning always has its uses.

Liu Chengzong flicked the reins atop his horse. "You don't want to stay a squad leader forever, do you? Once this battle is over, you'll both spend half a year in the Central Army Camp. Learn some new things, and I'll find you a good posting."

"Thank you, Grand Marshal!"

Overjoyed on horseback, Dai Daozi cupped his fists in salute, then asked, "Grand Marshal, by 'you both,' do you mean Crooked Beam?"

"Yes, Crooked Beam fought well in this battle. Heh!"

At the mention of Crooked Beam, Liu Chengzong couldn't help but smile. This was a winner in life within the Lion Army, and he had gotten Liu fiercely excited for a moment.

Liu the Lion commanded the army but never micromanaged everything personally. He knew what soldiers wanted. The Lion Army's transition toward a normal regime would involve changes in every aspect, and starting families and having children was one of them.

Some officers in the Central Army Camp believed the Lion Army was currently at its most unburdened and spirited state.

But Liu the Lion did not see it that way.

The morale he believed in was that of the ancient shi — the man who, at the critical moment of choosing between life and righteousness, would resolutely sacrifice himself for the one who understood him, unafraid of death.

He did not want his Lion soldiers to reach those final four words because their starting point was that living held no meaning.

Quite the opposite. He believed that a soldier with attachments, out of attachment to life, could summon even greater conviction and courage in the moment between life and death.

What Liu the Lion most wished to do was this: let his soldiers be responsible for fighting to the death for the things that mattered more, while he was responsible for removing their worries about what lay behind.

Crooked Beam stepping forward without an officer present provided powerful support for his view.

Liu Chengzong did not dwell on this matter. Dai Daozi and Crooked Beam's promotion was already a foregone conclusion; he merely had his guards record it to establish a merit evaluation system. Then, raising his whip, he asked, "Those nobles who put up stubborn resistance — they haven't been captured?"

"Not yet. We're unfamiliar with the mountain paths here. The only one we have is a captured monk who understands Chinese, with Crooked Beam. It's very inconvenient to send Basang's slaves to search, and we can't get anyone to guide us, so we still can't find them for now."

After Dai Daozi finished, Liu Chengzong took a moment to react before catching the key point of that sentence. "Very inconvenient — what's inconvenient about it?"

"A few of those nobles are the masters of the slaves under Basang. We can't let them go search on their own." Dai Daozi shook his head. "I'm worried someone might let them go. There's one called Danba — he absolutely must not be allowed to escape."

Danba?

Liu Chengzong knew that this entire territory was called Danba. "What did he do?"

"After we seized the estate, he still sneaked back in. He tortured a slave to death inside a cave — the methods were extremely cruel."

Dai Daozi said to Liu Chengzong with absolute certainty, "Grand Marshal, I have a witness. A woman named Buchi saw it with her own eyes. She was so frightened she fell ill and spends all day believing she's possessed by a ghost."

Liu Chengzong narrowed his eyes and said slowly, "So his territory was confiscated, he was nursing a grudge, and he took it out on a slave… Find him. Can you confirm where they're hiding?"

"They should be in these mountains. There are no roads in the mountains, and my scouting cavalry is short-handed. I can only have Xie Erhu's Mongol troops block the paths out of the mountains and search bit by bit."

Dai Daozi shook his head. "I expect it will take a long time."

"No matter how long, we search."

A look of displeasure crossed Liu Chengzong's face. He wasn't afraid of others bearing grudges, but once he knew who bore a grudge against him, he had to use every means possible to eliminate them quickly. "Rest tonight. Tomorrow I'll have Battalion Commander Zhang help you — bring troops and search the mountain together."

Speaking of which, Zhang Tianlin was actually a major hero of this battle as well. He was the Lion Army's expert at charging with cavalry.

The reason Xie Erhu's trained infantry camp could advance and counterattack in a single move during a head-on battle, striking the enemy cavalry so hard they dared not charge a second time, was entirely thanks to Zhang Tianlin charging the infantry formation again and again during the drills at Ju'erwan Camp.

It was he who gave the Lion Army infantry such extensive experience in withstanding charges. In half a year, they endured more charges than many armies suffer in a lifetime.

"We must find this man. He's a perfect example — let the slaves know what is right and what is wrong."