Chapter 44: Counter-Kill

The dust and smoke rolling in from the southwest grew thicker and denser. The Yanjun and Boye armies, tasked with holding the western flank, could no longer maintain their lines after the Chuanrong troops fled, and they too broke and routed northward.

At this moment, amidst the chaotic battlefield, everyone in the Baoyi Garrison stared blankly in all directions, still unable to snap out of the daze of their recent victory.

But Zhao Huian roared directly:

"What are you all standing around like fools for? Follow me and run for your lives!"

With that, Zhao Huian took the lead and sprinted north. That was the evacuation route Xianyu Yue had told him about earlier; at this moment, he had no choice but to trust Xianyu Yue.

The moment Zhao Huian bolted, the others snapped out of their trances. No longer thinking about hacking off enemy heads, they shouldered their battle flags and ran after Zhao Huian.

Zhao Liu cursed loudly from the side:

"A bunch of spineless cowards! Lower your banners, you blockheads! You don't even know how to run for your lives properly."

Hearing this, the flag-bearers of the other eight squads jolted awake. They hurriedly snapped their flagpoles, pulled down the banners, and stuffed them into their pockets.

As expected, Sixth Brother understood running for his life the best.

……

Fatty Dou, weighed down by heavy iron armor and with all the flesh on his body quivering, swung his iron maces with gritted teeth, shouting to pump himself up.

Suddenly, he saw Zhao Huian—who had just been brimming with high spirits—charging over with his squad of men.

Before he could figure out what was happening, Zhao Huian had already reached his side, dropped a single sentence, and sprinted past without looking back.

Fatty Dou froze for a second and muttered the words back to himself:

"Follow me."

The next moment, Fatty Dou’s cross-eyed gaze straightened right out because he, too, spotted the enemy forces coming from the southwest.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Fatty Dou roared at his local militia squad:

"Follow me! No, follow Big Zhao!"

Just like that, Fatty Dou, who had run all the way forward, was now running all the way back. At that moment, he wanted nothing more than to slap his own face:

"Doulü Sanlang, oh Doulü Sanlang, you truly are a cheap wretch! Why on earth did you get carried away and charge after Big Zhao? Why did you ever care whether he lived or died?"

"Wuuu wuuu wuuu."

Fatty Dou’s heart bled as he ran. Most of his supplies and baggage were still sitting in the camp; if he lost all that now, the losses would be catastrophic.

Shouldn't he go check on the camp first?

The moment that thought crossed his mind, he saw that turtle's egg of a Big Zhao running even faster.

"Big Zhao, wait for me! Wait for me!"

"Wuuu wuuu wuuu."

……

Along the way, whenever Zhao Huian spotted a familiar militia squad leader, he would shout, "Follow me," though very few actually listened.

Due to limited visibility, they hadn't yet realized that the Chuanrong troops had already fled, nor had they seen the Nanzhao army crossing the river from the upper reaches of the Baishu River.

But Zhao Huian couldn't afford to worry about them anymore.

He led his unit in a single breathless dash back to where they had previously formed their battle array. There, Old Mo had already gathered the horses and baggage wagons with the supply personnel. The moment he saw Zhao Huian approach, he let out a massive sigh of relief:

"Commander! A band of routed soldiers tried to loot us just a moment ago, but they were chased off by the Yanjun troops charging up from behind."

Zhao Huian didn't speak; he simply tucked that piece of information away in his mind and then said to everyone:

"The Chuanrong troops broke first, and the center command is shifting its banners northward. Right now, our only option is to retreat alongside the center command. The center command is escorted by the Zhongwu Army, whose combat strength has remained completely undamaged since the start of the battle. Those Nanzhao troops won't dare to pursue them, so our only path to survival is to stick with the center command. Do you all understand?"

None of them knew about the contingency plans Zhao Huian had made beforehand. Seeing that their commander could still calmly issue orders amidst such a crisis, their hearts instantly settled.

After surviving that recent battle, Zhao Huian’s prestige was now deeply rooted in their hearts.

Without a single moment of hesitation, Zhao Huian beckoned from afar to the approaching Fatty Dou, then led his unit—escorting eight baggage wagons—running hard toward the north.

Although there were still plenty of belongings left behind in the main camp, running for their lives took precedence over everything else at this moment.

……

Run, run, run. Routed soldiers were everywhere.

At this very moment, Zhao Huian truly understood the meaning of the phrase "the wind in the trees and the cry of cranes sound like an enemy force."

Old Mo drove the donkey cart at lightning speed, while Zhao Huian stood on the bed of the cart, constantly scanning left and right to urge everyone to keep up.

Fortunately, it was still afternoon and the daylight was bright. If they had to flee in the middle of the night, the unit would have scattered before they'd even run very far.

Even so, gaps were beginning to form between the ranks. The mountain bandits turned soldiers and those with Tang military backgrounds were holding up fine and were best at running, but the former Xiongbian youths were starting to fall behind.

Seeing this, Zhao Huian stood atop the donkey cart and shouted at the top of his lungs:

"Throw your armor onto the carts, everyone! Quickly!"

Hearing this, the men stopped one after another and began shedding their heavy armor.

Zhao Liu sat at the other end of the donkey cart alongside Niu Li, who was clutching a small drum. Upon hearing Zhao Huian's order, Zhao Liu immediately called out:

"You can't just strip off your armor like that! Hurry up and use cloth to wipe off your sweat first!"

Zhao Huian instantly realized the danger. He glanced backward, saw no sign of the Nanzhao army in pursuit, and then spotted a dense forest to the west. He roared:

"Everyone into that forest! Strip your armor off there!"

With that, Old Mo drove the donkey cart plunging off the dirt road, bumping and jolting wildly straight into the woods.

Behind him, the entire garrison swarmed down the slope, followed closely by a flood of others. It wasn't just Fatty Dou and his men, but also scattered soldiers from various other broken units.

Once they reached the trees, Zhao Huian picked a wind-sheltered spot and had everyone shed their armor and dry each other's sweat with cloths.

He, however, kept his Mingguang armor on and stared anxiously out toward the edge of the forest.

At that moment, Fatty Dou finally caught up, completely out of breath. He grabbed the side rail of the donkey cart and gasped heavily:

"Big Zhao... let's catch our breath here... I reckon the Nanzhao army went off to chase the center command."

Zhao Huian’s heart was hammering violently, practically leaping up into his throat. Hearing Fatty Dou’s words, he nodded.

Then, he suddenly turned and looked at Fatty Dou in astonishment, gasping:

"Fatty Dou, your cross-eyes are fixed!"

Fatty Dou froze for a moment, held a finger up to the tip of his nose, and then let his eyes cross right back again. He let out a long breath:

"That looks much more comfortable."

Zhao Huian was left speechless.

Ignoring Fatty Dou's bizarre antics, Zhao Huian cast a glance over the troops and noticed that their numbers had grown significantly—there were quite a few strangers among them.

Zhao Huian immediately shouted to those newcomers:

"Brothers-in-arms, as the saying goes, a snake cannot move without a head. Since we are running together, we won't get anywhere without someone to lead and make decisions. If you want to keep running with us along this road, you listen to me. If you aren't willing, I won't stop you—you can run north on your own."

When Zhao Huian finished speaking, the routed soldiers exchanged glances with one another and then shouted in unison:

"We’ve all heard of the great name of 'Righteous Huian'; we're willing to follow you!"

"That's right, we'll follow you!"

"We'll listen to whatever you say!"

"Master Zhao is an honest man; he won't sell us out."

The men chattered all at once, and Zhao Huian couldn't keep the corners of his mouth from curling up. He had no idea that he, Big Zhao, had already gained such widespread renown. With people answering his call like this, his personal charm wasn't half bad, was it?

Yet the inexperienced Big Zhao had no idea that these scattered tribal soldiers and routed troops didn't dare to flee alone at all.

In any major battle like this, the nearby mountain forests and marshes were long infested with various bandit gangs and raiding groups—hyenas waiting to make a fortune off of fleeing soldiers.

Along this entire route, only Zhao Huian’s unit had managed to maintain its military cohesion. Sticking close to Zhao Huian was their only ticket to survival.

So right now, let alone asking them to obey orders, if someone told them to call Zhao Huian "Father," hesitating even for a second would be a sign of disrespect toward their own lives.

There were fourteen men in this new group of stragglers. Zhao Huian had them select their own leaders, discovering they were both from the Yanjun army: one was named Han Jian, and the other was named Ma Wu.

Zhao Huian called Zhou Dexing over, thinking they would be familiar with each other, but the two men wore awkward expressions the moment they saw Zhou Dexing.

Zhou Dexing merely let out a cold snort and said:

"Our commander is a hero. Follow him honestly, and you'll be fine."

The two men nodded awkwardly and let out long sighs of relief.

Seeing this, Zhao Huian knew instantly that Old Zhou knew them and that there was history there. But since they weren't volunteering the information, Zhao Huian didn't have the bandwidth to pry.

With everyone having shed their armor and wiped away their sweat, Zhao Liu instructed the men to retie their cloaks tightly, and they prepared to resume their flight.

Just at that moment, a chorus of battle cries erupted from the dirt road outside the forest. Zhao Huian whipped his head around from atop the donkey cart to look.

……

Peering out of the woods, Zhao Huian saw six donkey carts barreling wildly ahead, pursued by a howling, excited squad of Nanzhao soldiers.

Suddenly, one of the donkey carts smashed into a boulder, bounced violently into the air, and slammed back down with a heavy crash, snapping its axle clean in two.

The speeding donkey cart flipped over on its side, spilling all the wooden crates from its bed scattering across the ground.

Yet what tumbled out onto the dirt was not the gold, silver, and silk fabrics the Nanzhao soldiers had anticipated, but stacks upon stacks of rolled paper documents.

When the axle broke, the people on the cart were hurled into the air. The driver slammed his head straight into a stone, snapping his neck instantly, while another person tumbled into the grassy meadow and failed to crawl back up for a long time.

Because of this delay, the other accompanying donkey carts were forced to slow their pace, and the pursuing Nanzhao soldiers closed the distance immediately.

With vicious slashes of swords and axes, the fleeing men suffered heavy casualties.

Just as the Nanzhao soldiers prepared to split open the remaining wooden crates to inspect their loot, a sudden volley of arrows rained down from the forest, dropping a large swath of them right where they stood.

Inside the woods, Zhao Huian didn't even blush after realizing he had once again scored a hundred-percent hit on an unintended target. He instinctively puffed out his chest, putting on a grave and professional facade.

He had just recognized a familiar face—the person who had been flung off the cart was none other than Wang Duo, whom he had met earlier.

This fool was actually hauling a whole crate of books while running for his life.

Old man Wang was a natural genius at managing logistics, food, and provisions; Zhao Huian hadn't the heart to watch him die here. So the moment he saw a Nanzhao warrior about to deliver a finishing blow, Zhao Huian didn't hesitate to loose an arrow.

True to form, his stray arrow unceremoniously buried itself deep into the forehead of a trailing enemy soldier. Fortunately, Guo Congyun standing beside him shot down the one in front, or else old man Wang would still have met a grim end.

Following the volley of arrows, Zhao Huian glanced at his men. Although aside from himself and Guo Congyun—who were still armored horsemen—everyone else was stripped down, when it was time to fight for your life, even if you were fighting in your bare skin, you had to charge.

With that, he let out a thunderous roar:

"Charge with me!"

Leaping down from the donkey cart, Zhao Huian raised his sabre and strode with broad steps out of the forest.

The entire Baoyi Garrison followed closely behind without a single laggard. Fatty Dou cursed under his breath, threw on a single tunic, hefted his iron maces, and led his men charging out as well.

In an instant, battle cries erupted from all sides as if an entire ambush force had sprung from the earth.

The Nanzhao pursuit force had only numbered around a hundred men to begin with. Having half their number cut down by the sudden arrow volley, the survivors saw Tang soldiers rushing out from the woods and instinctively assumed they had walked into a trap, shattering their courage entirely.

Once their fighting spirit was broken, they couldn't muster even ten percent of their strength. In mere moments, the entire pursuit force was cut down to the last man by Zhao Huian and his troops along the roadside.