Though the vanguard army had swiftly flattened the Zao Ma Fortress Cluster and killed over three thousand enemies, from the supreme commander Yang Yuanzan to the several generals and officers, none of them felt the slightest bit of relief. Four thousand soldiers had died in battle, so how many more were wounded? Fortunately, it wasn’t the height of summer, when epidemics spread most easily. Otherwise, with the ruthless customs of the northern nomads, those severely wounded and nearly impossible to heal would have been executed on the spot, and not even counted as having died in battle!
Yet within the vanguard, there was a group of people who remained relaxed and at ease. Most of them were accompanied by elite cavalry escorts, ranging from twenty or thirty riders to hundreds. Their ages mostly ranged from fifteen to twenty-five. If the beacon commander of the Deer Tail Beacon had missed the chance to join the White Horse The Righteous Followers and was deeply regretful, then these sons of southern court officials or descendants of Grasslandchieftains were equally resentful at not being selected as frontline military advisors.
In the Northern Desolation war effort, the three fronts, with the central being the most crucial, were under the command of Dong Zhuo, the Grand Minister of the Southern Court, who personally oversaw military affairs. Besides Dong’s private army, the rest of the forces were mainly composed of elite troops from various border garrisons. And right under Dong Zhuo’s very nose, it was extremely difficult for outsiders to get involved.
As for the western front, with Liu Gui and later the Northern Court Minister Toba Pusa in command, along with eight thousand Qiang cavalry, they were utterly annihilated even before battle was joined. Only a fool would go there to suffer hardship. Therefore, the eastern front of Youzhou was filled with many aristocratic descendants who wanted neither to take risks nor miss the opportunity to earn military merit.
General Yang Yuanzan, who had always maintained good relations with all factions, did not act unreasonably. He tacitly allowed the infiltration of various prominent families, even specially permitting these individuals to detach from the main force and actively seek out beacons within the Hulu Pass to attack and slaughter. If any of them had the courage and capability to engage in direct combat with fortified settlements, Yang Yuanzan would not stop them; their lives and deaths were their own responsibility.
During this time, groups of cavalry of varying sizes continuously came and went hastily from the main camp. Even many small cavalry units stationed outside the Hulu Pass heard the news and rushed to join this hunting game, as if a bloody feast was slowly beginning to unfold.
It was said that yesterday at dusk, the second young master of the Xie family from Long Yao State returned with eighty riders, their horses’ sides adorned with sixteen freshly severed heads of Youzhou beacon soldiers. Two warhorses deliberately dragged the corpses of two beacon commanders into the camp. The two corpses were dragged all the way across the yellow sands, their flesh battered and bloodied, their backs revealing exposed bones.
In the latter half of the night, another group of Grasslandwarriors returned. They were composed of four hundred riders from three tribes and had directly breached a valley fortress at the edge of the Wo Gong City outskirts. These warriors, their bodies drenched in blood, galloped into camp wielding swords. And those blades, clearly different from the curved sabers of the Grasslandtribes, were none other than the renowned Xu family Northern Liang swords from the Xu clan! Several young Grasslandchieftains even threw down some crumpled objects as they rode into camp, laughing loudly. When someone picked them up, they discovered they were banners bearing the Xu family crest!
After the battle at the Zao Ma Fortress Cluster, the vanguard army, whose morale had slightly waned, was suddenly filled with renewed vigor.
This morning, just as the sky began to lighten, seven or eight cavalry units rushed out of camp in a race against each other.
With various siege weapons gradually arriving, the attack on the nearby Wo Gong City was about to begin at any moment.
A tall, bearded man of indeterminate age was walking carelessly through the camp, accompanied by a female attendant who drew far more attention than he did. The young woman had a beautifully embroidered pouch hanging from her waist, though its fragrance was long since overwhelmed by the stench of the military encampment. As the two passed by, the lower-ranking Northern Desolation soldiers who dozed beside their horses cast nearly predatory glances. In times of war, the Northern Desolation had long held the rule against bringing women into military camps. It was only due to the influence of southern court officials that this had changed. As long as their family status was weighty enough, even the supervisory officers sent from the imperial court would turn a blind eye. Among the ten first-rank families of the Northern Desolation, seven were from the north and only three from the south. However, when it came to the second-tier families, the southern aristocracy held a slight advantage.
The man, openly accompanied by the woman, strolled slowly, occasionally lifting his head to gaze at the towering Wo Gong City in the distance. Finally, as he passed a cluster of tents, a sharp-eyed young noble in a sable fur coat spotted him and hurriedly ran over, his face filled with flattery as he whispered, “Brother Zhong, what a coincidence.”
Zhong rubbed his beard, glancing at the scene behind the young noble, and chuckled, “Looks like you spent the whole night hanging horse heads. So, can’t take it anymore and decided to go attack a few beacons?”
The young man grinned, “I’ve made plans with a few friends. We’re going to take on a few beacons before the city assault begins. We hope to team up and take down a major fortress before the siege starts, so we can show off to our elders back home and avoid being scolded for being useless.”
The man, whose surname was somewhat unusual compared to the southern great clans, merely nodded without comment. His gaze passed over the head of this third-generation noble from Gu Sai State and landed on a group of four or five young men in embroidered furs standing together. They clearly didn’t recognize him, and their arrogant expressions were somewhat unfriendly. Zhong glanced at the horses behind them; all were top-tier warhorses from the Grassland. More importantly, good horses needed proper training. The Northern Desolation had a tradition of hanging horse heads, and when done right, the horses could charge in perfect unison, their heads at the same height, never falling out of sync. During a charge, they would resemble a row of eagles soaring across the ground. In the Northern Desolation, men were expected to be skilled in both riding and archery, and the art of hanging horse heads was also crucial. It was somewhat akin to the Chinese literati’s mastery of music, chess, calligraphy, and painting.
Zhong returned his gaze and smiled at the young noble from the second-tier family of Gu Sai State, saying, “Be careful. There’ll be plenty of big battles in the coming years.”
The young noble, a descendant of a Gu Sai State aristocratic family, was visibly flattered and nodded vigorously. Then, in a hushed, conspiratorial tone, he said, “Inside there’s a fellow named Pang. His father is the newly appointed general of the Wa Zhu military town in Gu Sai State, and this kid is highly favored within his family. I’m tight with him, so he told me his father secretly assigned a powerful expert as his personal bodyguard. Tsk tsk, a second-tier realm master. So today I’m just tagging along with him. Although we only have a little over a hundred cavalry combined, with that expert, what beacon can’t we take down? I bet he alone could kill half the defenders of a smaller Youzhou fortress. But the kid says his father doesn’t want him showing off, so I can’t push him too hard. Plus, that expert has a big ego and looks at me with disdain. Damn it! Haha, Brother Zhong, you go ahead and do your thing. I’m off with them.”
Zhong smiled and said, “Go ahead.”
As the young noble had just turned and taken two steps away, he turned back, cautiously asking, “Brother Zhong, can I come find you for a drink tonight? I’ve secretly stashed away some good wine!”
Zhong nodded and said, “Sure, as long as I’m not called to the front lines for the city assault, I’ll be available.”
The young noble grinned so widely his mouth seemed to stretch to his ears as he ran off.
A group of about four hundred riders, led by five aristocratic youths, roared and galloped away. As the noble waved at Zhong from atop his horse with a smile, Zhong faintly smiled and waved his arm in return.
After leaving the camp, the four hundred riders did not immediately scatter. They had chosen the fortress cluster where Zhong Gu Stronghold was located as their target, all heading in the same general direction. Only when they neared did they begin to separate and charge toward their individual targets.
As they rode along, they passed many beacons and fortresses already destroyed by the main army, leaving the landscape in ruins, with the corpses of Youzhou soldiers all beheaded.
Those heads were heavy with the weight of military merit.
This group of riders finally began to scatter upon reaching their destination. Two close friends did not separate, and the other three did not find this strange. In their hearts, they were filled with mockery instead. Two descendants of second-tier aristocratic families, with only a hundred and twenty riders combined, were truly pitifully few.
The riders gradually ventured deeper, cautiously avoiding the beacons that were attached to the fortress clusters.
In truth, they had already inquired about the details of this hunting expedition yesterday. Upon learning the truth, their initial fervor had cooled considerably. It turned out that although those cavalry units had indeed earned real military merit, their losses and casualties were also significant. Especially the Grasslandwarriors who had captured the Xu family banner after seizing the fortress, their apparent victory was only because they had left all their fallen comrades’ bodies on the battlefield without retrieving them. Moreover, various rumors indicated that even those small beacons, seemingly insignificant, were often manned by archers who were extremely difficult to deal with. Even after breaking in, they still had to engage in close combat until the bitter end, with no quarter given.
Surrender?
A joke! After so many years of brutal battles between the Northern Desolation and Northern Liang, who had ever heard of anyone accepting surrender?
And who would even want to surrender?
There were even rumors that the former Southern Court Minister Huang Song Pu, upon his return to service, had proposed a suggestion in court about whether to consider accepting surrenders. At that time, not only did the great generals and ministers react with disdain, but even the emperor himself had turned visibly cold-faced. In the end, it was the Grand Peacekeeper who helped Huang Song Pu out of the situation, saying that the matter of accepting surrenders could wait until after Northern Liang was crushed. The Grand Peacekeeper even made a rare joke, saying, “As long as our cavalry’s hooves cross into the Northern Liang region, even if Minister Huang desperately tries to stop them from accepting surrenders, I’m afraid the generals on the battlefield and the swordsmiths in the rear will jointly protest, saying, ‘Stop killing, the blades aren’t enough anymore.’”
The hundred and twenty riders finally found an ideal target.
Pang, whose father was the general of the Wa Zhu military town, raised his hand and pulled out a sheepskin map from his chest. The southern aristocrat who had been cozying up to the man surnamed Zhong leaned over and was surprised to say, “Pang Rui, you’re pretty good. You even have one of these. Isn’t this the kind of thing only the thousand-man commanders have the privilege to carry on the eastern front?”
The young man named Pang Rui curled his lips, looking up from the map where a beacon marked as Deer Tail was written in tiny script. He nodded and said, “Each thousand-man commander has one, totaling sixteen pieces of sheepskin. I borrowed this one from one of them last night. He had someone search for a while before finally finding it and generously said to give it to me. They don’t need it and don’t even care about it, but for us, it’s quite useful. Zeng Pingshan, let’s get this straight beforehand. How many beacons we can take down is one thing, but when it comes to dividing up the heads of the Youzhou soldiers, equal shares won’t do. It has to be seven for me and three for you.”
Zeng Pingshan, whose grandfather was the vice minister of revenue in the southern court’s western capital, exclaimed in disbelief, “You’re talking nonsense! How can you be so unfair? We each have over sixty riders, and I won’t be hiding at the back. It should be an even split!”
Pang Rui tilted his head slightly and subtly pointed his chin at the elderly “cavalryman” beside him who was quietly dozing off.
Zeng Pingshan’s bravado immediately deflated. He whispered in a conciliatory tone, “Pang Rui, come on, we’ve been close friends for so many years. How about six for you and four for me?”
Pang Rui narrowed his eyes with a sly look, “Six and four is acceptable, but you have to tell me who that bearded man with the female companion is.”
Zeng Pingshan wore a conflicted expression.
Pang Rui curled his lips, “If you don’t hurry up, I’ll give the order to attack the beacon.”
Zeng Pingshan slapped his horsewhip and let out a heavy snort. He leaned in closer and whispered, “He’s surnamed Zhong.”
Pang Rui’s expression immediately became more serious. He muttered to himself, “Zhong family, there’s no second one like them in our Northern Desolation. General Zhong Shentong, the great demon Zhong Liang! In the next generation, Zhong Gui was quite famous, but after marrying into the Lu family, the yes-men of the Zhong family, he suddenly disappeared. There were rumors that he was killed. But he has an even more formidable older brother, Zhong Tan, right? So, is that disheveled man the Zhong Tan, one of the vanguard generals on this eastern front?”
Zeng Pingshan nodded, his face filled with admiration and yearning.
In the Northern Desolation, Zhong Tan was a celebrated figure who could rival Tuoba Chunsun, the second son of the Martial God. Not only was Zeng Pingshan without any military achievements, but even his grandfather would have to greet Zhong Tan with a respectful smile if they met.
Pang Rui twisted his neck and then raised his hand high, swinging it forward.
Over a hundred riders suddenly squeezed their horses’ flanks and began their charge.
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