Chapter 94: Yanshui Pass

"For fuck's sake, tell the cannon troops to stop! Those are our own men — you're about to blast General Lu to death!"

Below Yanshui Pass, over a dozen frontier cavalrymen were pointing at the defenders on the wall and cursing furiously.

The defenders were panicked and at a loss — their squad commander had led troops out, and the highest-ranking officer left in the pass was a centurion.

In the torchlight, the centurion was equally flustered by this news. Wringing his hands, he asked in confusion, "Aren't those bandit troops? How could they be General Lu's men?"

"What bandits! The bandits killed our centurion at Jingjiagou and stole our uniforms and armor.

The General was worried the bandits would trick their way into Yanshui Pass, so he rode through the night to reinforce it — who could've known our brothers would die under your cannon fire!"

Feng Rang shot Liu Chengzong a sidelong glance, thinking the chief was really getting into character, as if he truly had brothers dying under the bombardment.

But his tone was just a little too aggressive.

The man up on the pass was still an officer, however minor. He might panic and lose his head for a moment, but give him a little time to think and he'd come to his senses.

After all, was he someone a lowly scout rider could point at and curse out?

Feng Rang cleared his throat, turned and pointed toward the distant northwest, then stepped forward and pleaded, "Centurion, sir, please show mercy and tell the general inside the pass to stop the cannons. If this keeps up, our general is done for!"

Liu Chengzong nearly burst out laughing at those words.

The defending officer at Yanshui Pass had done him a huge favor.

He had expected Mobile Corps Commander Lu to pursue, and by late night he'd also considered that the government troops might have been slowed down by the artillery — but he never imagined Lu's entire force would come.

At least five cannons with a one-li range were trading fire with the twelve cannons the Yanshui Pass commander had set up on the hilltop, and they weren't even losing.

If he weren't in such a hurry to trick the pass open, he would have loved to be a spectator on Slate Mountain and properly watch this — the largest cannon battle he'd witnessed in his entire life.

Cannon battles weren't rare in themselves.

The cannons both sides were using weren't large-caliber — if they were too big, you couldn't move them. At most, they were three- to five-hundred-jin cannons firing one- or two-jin shot at each other.

The numbers weren't large either — seventeen in total. Below were all breech-loading Frankish quick-fire cannons; on the hill were all muzzle-loading general cannons.

What made it precious was being a spectator rather than the one getting shelled.

This might be the only chance in his lifetime.

Yet he had given this precious chance to Cao Yao and Wei Qian'er.

Feng Rang's words had their effect — the centurion on the wall grew even more flustered.

He looked toward the northwest, where the exchange of fire still raged. It was so far away that hardly any loud sound carried, but he could still make out faint firelight, which filled him with mounting unease.

At last, the centurion made up his mind. He slammed his hand on the battlement and decided to go mediate this battle born of misunderstanding. He said to his aides, "The front squad, follow me. The rest of you, hold the pass securely. Open the gate."

The campfires the defenders had set outside the pass cast flickering light across Liu Chengzong's face beneath his frontier-army iron helmet.

Listening to the groaning creak of the heavy pass gates slowly opening, he lowered his head slightly. The brim of his iron helmet cast a shadow, hiding the upturned corner of his mouth.

The sleep-deprived defenders filed out from the opening gate in a Double Dragon Emerging formation. The centurion rode at the front, saying, "Move, quickly follow me to see the squad commander."

"Officer, I won't take you there, but I can send you..."

As they passed each other, Liu Chengzong turned his horse to ride alongside the centurion, speaking in a low voice to draw the centurion's head around.

In that instant, his left thumb pushed open the guard of his goose-quill saber. His right hand gripped the blade and swung fiercely. The back-edged tip, in a split second, slipped precisely past the iron helmet's neck guard and sliced across the centurion's throat.

"Send you to see the Founding Emperor!"

With that roar, he had already braced one hand on the saddle and vaulted down from behind Red Flag's back. Wheeling around, he raised his blade and charged into the dark, cavernous gate tunnel: "Take the pass!"

Behind him, the dozen-odd mounted soldiers loosed volleys of arrows into the gate tunnel. Feng Rang also leaped from his horse, blade in hand, and followed him as they plunged into the crowd.

The sudden shock caught everyone off guard — not just the frontier infantry in their surcoats, but even the pass's centurion on horseback

was already right on top of him. In that moment, long spears and polearms were all useless in the cramped gate tunnel. In the blink of an eye, Liu Chengzong closed in and stabbed and slashed down several men.

From behind came the thunderous rumble of hooves striking earth — spotting the gate wide open, the mule-camp infantry hidden in the distance had arrived.

Nearing the pass, they dismounted. Some pulled out homemade grappling hooks and hurled them up at the wall; even more charged the gate with weapons in hand.

By now, Liu Chengzong's courage had grown considerably. His frontier-army armor had been repeatedly reinforced with collected plates, and he no longer approached close combat with the same caution as before.

The defenders' long weapons couldn't extend properly. The infantry in front struck him with spear shafts, but it felt like scratching an itch. Those behind thrust at him with long spears, but as long as he dodged his neck, they couldn't pierce the overlapping seams of his armor plates.

He, on the other hand — against these defenders in surcoats, not one could last a single exchange with him. Even guarding their necks was useless.

As a former frontier soldier of Yuhe Fort, when good armor plates were scarce, he knew all too well where soldiers stashed their rusted, damaged plates.

Spotting the weak points in the protection beneath the cloth surcoat had become almost instinctive to him.

As if he had x-ray eyes, he stabbed through those plates that a single thrust could penetrate with unerring accuracy.

In the blink of an eye, he had carved half a bloody path through the gate tunnel.

For a moment, the defenders packed in the gate tunnel fell into chaos.

Those at the front, terrified, wanted to retreat, and they jammed together with those in the middle who were crumbling at the mere sight of him — yet they were pushed forward by the defenders inside the pass who couldn't see the situation clearly and only wanted to surge ahead, unable to flee.

"Push them out!"

Liu Chengzong shouted.

Feng Rang understood. He let go of his blade, hurling it at the enemy, and seized a long spear. Holding it crosswise, he jammed it across the gate tunnel. Liu Chengzong grabbed the spear shaft too, and the two of them heaved inward together.

On one side: two former frontier soldiers who had eaten their fill at every meal for months.

On the other side: current frontier soldiers, superior in numbers but starving and exhausted.

Pushed by just two men, they were squeezed together and driven backward.

One step, two steps — someone fell.

Liu Chengzong advanced faster and faster. More and more bandit soldiers joined in behind him, shoving whole swaths of defenders back into the pass.

Finally, at a certain moment, seven or eight men were sent tumbling and rolling across the ground — they had broken through into the pass.

Liu Chengzong threw aside the spear shaft and charged the defenders with his blade once more.

They collapsed and scattered.

Mule-camp soldiers surged through the gate tunnel in groups, giving chase in every direction.

Some went back outside the pass, mounted their mules, and galloped into Yanshui Pass, pursuing the defenders fleeing in all directions.

That very night, the pass guarding the Yellow River ford and leading into Shanxi changed its surname.

Liu Chengzong stood atop the gate tower. The pass had four cannons he had never seen before, each looking to weigh six or seven hundred jin.

Feng Rang climbed onto the gate tower as well, shaking out his sore, numb, and swollen arms. He asked, "Chief, what do we do now?"

Liu Chengzong smiled.

He could feel it — ever since leaving Yan'an Prefecture, through the relay station raid, burning the express courier posts, and the string of battles that followed,

his prestige within the band had grown day by day. He had become their undisputed grand chief.

"What else can we do? Those two government troops will figure things out by dawn at the latest — I'd guess they already have. They'll definitely head this way.

I remember you used to be in the capital army's firearms battalion. These four cannons — do you recognize them?"

Feng Rang took only a single glance, then said delightedly, "Fine pieces! Ye Gong Divine Culverins — forged cannons. Long range and durable."

"Ask among the prisoners. Anyone willing to join us gets folded into the auxiliary troops — two meals a day, full belly. Bring the gunners straight up and have our combat soldiers watch them fire.

For those unwilling to join — they've surrendered, so don't take their lives. Same as always: strip them, tie them up, and make sure the bindings are tight."

Liu Chengzong did not mind at all if the prisoners were rescued and came back to fight him later.

Released prisoners were a tool for spreading fear among the enemy.

Once surrender becomes a habit, they lose their stubborn courage. At the first sign of a setback, their minds will turn to giving up.

That would make future battles much simpler.

Feng Rang took the order and sent men off to carry out these tasks. Only then did he ask, "Can we hold this pass?"

"What are you thinking? If Brothers Cao and Gao came over from Slate Mountain, with over five hundred men we might manage it. With just our hundred-odd, holding it is a sure impossibility."

As he spoke, Liu Chengzong smiled — a smile edged with ruthlessness. "Even if we can't hold it, we still have to fight. Otherwise, even if we slip away by luck, the government troops will just keep growing in number.

Aim those cannons true. One commander comes, kill one. Two come, kill the pair. Make them lose their nerve the moment they see a man on a mule from now on."