Chapter 546: A Familiar Troop Type

Gulusiqibu, chieftain of the Haracin tribe, sat his horse on the hillside. The distant northern desert Mongol battle lines, stretching from sky to earth, made his face tighten and his beard and hair bristle.

Amid a group of Uriankhai cavalry wearing gilt-Sanskrit bowl helmets and cloth-faced armor fixed with swastika iron plates, he alone wore a Ming army high commander's front-opening fish-scale yisan armor, a phoenix-wing helmet, and even his underlayer was an imperial-gift "Bull Fight" robe.

This was the armor of his late father, Subudi, Commander of Duoyan Guard. Two months ago, Gulusiqibu had worn this very attire while leading the Haracin army to overrun the Ming army's Desheng Fort.

When Subudi was alive, he could be called the greatest mind of the southern desert. He led the shattered Uriankhai to gain a firm foothold under the banner of the Thirty-Six Clans of Duoyan, and repeatedly jumped back and forth among the three powers of Chahar, the Later Jin, and the Great Ming — like a little master of courting death.

He was the son-in-law of the Haracin tribe, had annihilated a Chahar border-trade convoy, and when Ligdan Khan retaliated against his lord the Haracin Khan, he used his status as Duoyan Commander to lead his forces into Great Ming territory, evading Ligdan Khan's vengeance, then later struck a fatal blow at Chahar from behind.

During the Jisi Incident, he sent his son Gulusiqibu to follow the Later Jin in attacking the Great Ming. After Zunhua fell, he personally led a force to plunder the Later Jin on the road to the alliance meeting with Hong Taiji, angering Hong Taiji so much his liver ached, who then drove the Uriankhai army back home.

Subudi used this to explain to the Great Ming that the Uriankhai had been coerced into the war by the Later Jin, once again avoiding Ming retaliation.

Having just offended Hong Taiji, and with Hong Taiji failing to break through Shanhai Pass eastward and trapped in Zunhua in dire straits, Hong Taiji had no choice but to bribe Subudi with half the loot plundered during the Jisi incursion, transferring the Thirty-Six Clans of Duoyan Guard to garrison Taolin Pass.

Subudi took Hong Taiji's money, but instead of helping Hong Taiji, he told the Ming army he had come to assist them, and even sought a batch of provisions and fodder from Ma Shilong and the others.

After returning, Ligdan Khan fought the Battle of Zhaocheng against the Tumed and Haracin at Guihua City, leaving both tribes crippled. Subudi then turned around and beat up his own lord, Haracin Khan Laskab, and, with a "number one under heaven" attitude, played the turtledove occupying the magpie's nest, abandoning the Uriankhai name and styling himself chieftain of the Haracin tribe.

How does that saying go? The truly strong never blame their circumstances. Every member of the Golden Clan across the entire southern desert was squandering their inheritance; only Subudi, of practically grassroots origin, was building an enterprise.

After Subudi had done all this, having seized every achievement attainable in the southern desert steppe of this era, he soon fell ill and died, ending a life as the ultimate fence-sitter.

Times had changed. Having lost Subudi, the Haracin tribe under Gulusiqibu lacked such great talent and could only throw in completely with the Later Jin. But facing the northern desert allied army surging toward them like a mountain collapse and tsunami, Gulusiqibu was not afraid.

To say he wasn't nervous would be a lie, but he still coolly surveyed the situation and said to his uncle Sereng and Wandan Weizheng on the hillside, "For some reason, I feel they haven't come to fight."

Wandan Weizheng was his blood sixth uncle; Sereng was a paternal cousin uncle, both Uriankhai. In the past, the two had been Subudi's greatest help in his repeated flip-flopping; now they were the elders Gulusiqibu relied upon.

Facing the onrushing northern desert allied army, the two men felt the same as Gulusiqibu.

Hearing this, Sereng said, "Better to withdraw east to the mountain pass first, defend by the terrain, and wait for reinforcements. If we flee at the first sight of the enemy, it will be hard to explain to the Great Khan."

"If you're thinking of explaining to the Tiancong Khan, then you cannot retreat."

Wandan Weizheng stood on the hillside holding his horse, gazing at the dense black mass of the northern desert army formation in the distance. "Once we pull back and the enemy pursues, we won't be able to fight our way back. Better to strike first while they're still setting up their formation and chase them down for a spell."

This was already an era of overall decline in the Golden Clan's power. The Uriankhai, after Subudi, looked down on the Golden Clan even more. The three Borjigin from the northern desert leading troops here halved the oppressive force of that massive military presence.

But this wasn't enough to make the three Haracin chieftains arrogant enough to think they had a chance of victory. It mainly came from the appearance of the northern desert army.

Never mind the chaotic banners — the key was what Gulusiqibu had said: "They don't look like they've come to fight." In a real battle, who spreads over a hundred thousand troops in a single sweeping line that blankets the earth?

A hundred thousand troops was enough to encircle the entire Fengzhou Flats watertight, sealing off every mountain and river. In a normal battle, at this point they'd see at most twenty thousand troops appearing from the front; only after being routed would they discover enemies on all sides.

This spread-out method of attack was wrong. As long as the frontal charge was fast and fierce enough to rout one large battalion, it would be one sweeping ten, ten crushing a hundred, brewing a massive rout on the scale of a hundred thousand men.

Just as they harbored this doubt, they saw Shuolei's envoy... Shuolei had indeed not come to fight, but to demand their surrender.

The three Haracin nobles did not know that the three northern desert khans were also suffering enormous distress. Shuolei did not want to avoid fighting — he dared not fight. Setting a hundred-thousand-strong army in motion and fighting with a hundred-thousand-strong army were two entirely different concepts.

Commanding a hundred thousand troops in battle was an ability Liu Bang only possessed after a lifetime of warfare.

Shuolei, born clutching a golden bowl, holding a golden spoon, with a golden key in his mouth, could not even command ten thousand troops when he set out from the northern desert. Through this long expedition, he had made considerable progress and could now handle the various situations that arose on the march with forty thousand troops.

But as for combat... Shuolei was ninety percent certain in his heart: once this army began fighting, as soon as it left his field of vision, he could only issue one order to one unit. After that order was given, he would never be able to contact that single-use unit again until the battle ended.

So he absolutely dared not split his forty thousand troops. If he didn't split them, Günbö and Subadi dared even less to split theirs. The forces those two led were even larger than his, and their control over their armies was even weaker than his.

Most importantly, they were strangers in a strange land. Once the army moved twenty li beyond their position, the three khans as commanders simply could not construct a clear picture of the situation in their minds.

In the entire allied army, only the Marshal Army of less than twenty thousand men led by Yang Qi at the rear could move freely. After all, they were four Chief Regional Commanders, which worked out to only two small battalions per man. Moreover, whether Yang Qi, He Huchen, Wang Cheng'en, or Cangtu Taiji, all knew the terrain of the southern desert like the back of their hand.

But they hadn't separated from the northern desert allied army either; following them, they could scrounge mare's milk.

Gulusiqibu was just planning a surprise assault to rout a hundred thousand troops when he suddenly saw two small pincers extend from the distant army. Before he could react, the northern desert allied army had already reacted.

In that instant, the very earth trembled.

The hundred thousand troops on the Fengzhou Flats were swept away directly by Bai Wenxuan's charge.

First, the northern desert troops near the north and south foothills saw the Han army launch a charge and, thinking the central army had issued the order, several chiliarchs moved at the sound, leading their troops eastward in a flanking raid. The swirling dust blocked the view of the troops behind; the pounding hooves drowned out the gongs and drums. The entire army disintegrated as nobles of every tribe scrambled over each other.

Bai Wenxuan was terrified by the enormous commotion erupting behind him, because those Mongol cavalry, whistling from their mouths, soon appeared at his flanks, then overtook him, and then it was a chase... He had swept up the Mongols, and the Mongol horses had swept up his horse.

The entire army barreled forward in this uncontrollable state. As for their target, the six thousand troops of the Haracin tribe? They had fled the moment they saw the silent, all-out attack, too scared to even pack up their camp.

Only Yang Qi at the rear hadn't figured out what was going on. All he saw was a sandstorm kicking up ahead, a chaotic mess where nothing could be heard clearly.

Fortunately, he was easygoing. Knowing the three northern desert khans had a hundred thousand troops sitting there, it wouldn't matter even if he didn't advance, so he simply had He Huchen go knock on the gate, telling Ombu of the Tumed tribe to open the city gates — he wanted to get inside and escape the sandstorm.

In reality, however, this was a battle that both Shuolei and Gulusiqibu would remember for the rest of their lives.

Gulusiqibu would regret his missed opportunity for a lifetime. His judgment had not been wrong: with the northern desert's hundred thousand troops crammed here, a charge by just one thousand-man unit could have created a great victory known to all under heaven.

Once the fighting started, routing one unit — even their Great Khan could not stop the rout of an army on such a massive scale.

Pity he lacked a little courage and missed the best moment to attack, so that when Bai Wenxuan launched the first charge, all he could do was run.

After all, if the Great Khan couldn't even stop an army's rout, he certainly couldn't stop an army's charge.

The battle was unremarkable. The northern desert Mongol soldiers were very familiar with combat, but their army was clearly not familiar with war, so when it came to an actual fight, it was somewhat unseemly. But unfamiliarity with war was no great matter; at this scale, familiarity with hunting was enough.

Just like chasing rabbits.

The valiant and battle-hardened Uriankhai cavalry fled with their heads in their hands. Fleeing was clearly not a derogatory term here. With a twentyfold disparity in troop strength on an independent battlefield, no tactics or methods would work. Standing still would get you trampled to death; it proved nothing about bravery, only that your brain had a problem.

It took the hundred-thousand-strong northern desert allied army only half a day to occupy the entire Fengzhou Flats, but it took Shuolei five days to reestablish contact with his thirty-two chiliarchs.

He had a total of forty-six chiliarchs under his command. Fourteen had run off and were lost, their whereabouts still unknown. Even among the thirty-two chiliarchs he had contacted, they were scattered everywhere. When the intelligence was compiled, the several Chief Regional Commanders of the Marshal Headquarters in Guihua City were left utterly dumbfounded.

They'd all seen scout cavalry before, but never a hundred thousand scout cavalry.

Even though they'd chased the enemy like rabbits, the three northern desert khans still couldn't quite hold their heads up before the four Chief Regional Commanders of the Marshal Headquarters. Having fought such a humiliating battle, Shuolei, who had looked down on everyone his whole life, even felt like kowtowing to Yang Qi.

Even belatedly, Shuolei had realized: if Bai Wenxuan hadn't attacked first, with their army crammed together like that, they would inevitably have been sent hurtling back to their northern desert homeland by the Haracin in one wave.

He wasn't truly willing to exchange intelligence with Yang Qi either; it was simply that he was a stranger in a strange land. He had finally managed to contact his subordinate chiliarchs, jaisangs, darkhans, and other squad leaders, but had absolutely no idea of their exact positions.

For example, one chiliarch currently in contact had advanced farthest east, already over three hundred li out. The location report he sent back was utterly baffling — he couldn't say exactly where he was at all, only that there was a big pit with no grass, the nearby grazing was quite good, so he'd just rest his horses there for now.

With that description, not only did Shuolei have no idea where it was, but the three Chief Regional Commanders in Guihua City, who were drawing a complete map of the frontier entirely from memory, didn't know either. They could only cast pleading looks at Cangtu Taiji — that area was, after all, the Chahar tribe's old home.

Yet even Cangtu Taiji racked his brains and could not recall any big pit at his home.

He thought for a long while before sudden realization dawned. "They've probably almost reached Zhangjiakou," he said. "The big pit he's talking about is Jining Lake. It's a large lake — must be no rain, the lake's been baked dry."

Through this battle, the three northern desert khans — Shuolei, Subadi, and Günbö — fully acknowledged the Marshal Headquarters' strength. After all, while they were still scouring the ground for their subordinates, Yang Qi, He Huchen, and Wang Cheng'en had already completed the defensive deployment for the entire Fengzhou Flats.

Conversely, the officers of the Monan Commandery Office, led by Yang Qi, were also sizing up the Three Khans of Mobei and the various Mobei tribes behind them with cautious eyes.

For some unknown reason, Yang Qi felt that the way the Three Khans of Mobei used their troops struck him as familiar, but he could not recall where this sense of familiarity came from.

In short, the Three Khans of Mobei were as unfamiliar with large-scale warfare as if they were not Mongols at all, yet those lean, wiry, and hardy Mongol soldiers could endure extreme hardship and possessed an uncommon sense of order.

For instance, Bai Wenxuan's Western Battalion cavalry charged only as far as the Haracin camp and went no further, because after the enemy fled, they were busy gathering the wealth, goods, provisions, and livestock left behind by the Haracin tribe, losing most of their combat effectiveness; the small portion that remained was only prepared to fight to the death against any Mongols who rushed up to seize the spoils.

But the cavalry led by the Mobei nobles did not even glance at those goods, and their tribesmen showed no covetousness whatsoever, simply continuing their charge eastward in pursuit of the Haracin.

This was a state of affairs one could not even glimpse among the armies of the various Monan Mongol tribes.

Soon, however, neither side needed to observe the other any longer — Hong Taiji had come out through Zhangjiakou Pass.

The Three Khans of Mobei now no longer needed to rack their brains searching for their subordinates; the Mobei cavalry scattered north of the Great Wall came surging back like a tide before the blade of the Later Jin, exactly as they had when they charged eastward.

The chaotic troop formations of the Mobei allied army retreated all the way to Ulanqab before finally stabilizing at Manhan Mountain, where He Huchen had set up defenses, and withdrew to the rear in good order.

And in the rear, Yang Qi, who was helping the Three Khans of Mobei reorganize their army, finally had a sudden flash of understanding as the routed troops brought back one piece of intelligence after another — he now knew where his sense of familiarity with the Mobei cavalry came from.

It was mounted scouts.

If one took this hundred-thousand-strong force as a single massive army, then their performance was indeed utterly abysmal.

But if one took this massive army as a great mounted scout corps, then their performance could be described as exceptionally brilliant.

The Mobei allied army had used their own horses' hooves to scout out for him with absolute clarity the terrain, enemy situation, mountains, and rivers north of the Great Wall — exceedingly competent.

Hong Taiji, however, did not advance. Instead, he sent Yang Qi a letter. The gist of it was to tell Yang Qi: there is no old enmity between our two states. I heard of your arrival and, mindful that your army's provisions might be insufficient, had intended to entertain you with half of what I seized deep within Ming territory. But that great reckless fool Liu Chengzong raised troops without cause and, in league with the Mobei savages, attacked my ally Haracin — this is an unrighteous army. If you march south to strike the Ming, I will swear an oath with you never to attack from behind. But if you advance one step further east, our two states will be at war immediately.

To be honest, the moment Yang Qi saw this letter, he did feel a twinge of regret in his heart — regret that he had not first taken Hong Taiji's provisions and supplies before striking Haracin.

Commandant Yang thought to himself, it was not the Mobei tribes who wanted to attack Haracin — they had wanted peace talks. It was I who wanted to attack Haracin!

Hong Taiji's letter did not sway Yang Qi, but it did thoroughly terrify the Imperial Envoy Fang Zhenghua. At present, Yang Qi's army was like a sword hanging over the head of Shanxi. If they turned south to invade the Great Ming, given the plundering efficiency of those hundred thousand Mobei mounted scouts, the harm caused might well surpass that of the Later Jin.

And this was a very real possibility — after all, the Later Jin had by now left the borders, and Yang Qi's army was in desperate need of supplies, making Shanxi the best target for an attack.

Soon, however, he no longer needed to worry about Shanxi, because He Huchen at Manhan Mountain, having scouted that the Later Jin's Kong Youde division had come out through Yanghe Pass, charged straight at them — the two sides had begun fighting.

This was only one aspect. The other aspect came from the west — an urgent report from Ningxia: Liu Chengzong had captured Gongchang Prefecture and was leading his army on the road to attack Jingning Subprefecture.

Ningxia was about to be encircled.

Good morning!