Volume One, Chapter 51: Crazy! Five Hundred for Ten Thousand!
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The Northern Defense Pass was garrisoned by more than ten thousand Border Pacification soldiers.
Yet after repeated, bloody clashes with Northern Yan’s hundred thousand iron cavalry, the Border Pacification Army had already suffered more than two thousand casualties, and had even lost Deputy General Zhao Lidong. The troops now arriving from prefectures and counties across the realm numbered only a few thousand. Their quality was uneven, and they could hardly compare with the elite Border Pacification Army.
To put it bluntly, they were nothing more than a ragtag force hastily assembled from disparate units.
With such meager strength, how could they possibly stand against Northern Yan’s nearly hundred thousand iron riders, not to mention the more than ten thousand cavalrymen of the Rong tribes’ Black Bear and Red Fox divisions?
How could this battle even be fought?
Even if a celestial immortal descended in person, there might be no way to turn the tide.
The Northern Defense Pass was finished.
The Prince of Northern Tranquility would seize this opportunity to establish himself as an independent power with his troops.
Northern Yan’s iron cavalry would smash through the mighty pass, advance unhindered, and ravage the heartland of Great Liang.
Three years earlier, Great Liang’s two hundred thousand elite troops had already been buried along the frontier, dealing a devastating blow to the nation’s strength. Now it had no power to stop the allied forces of Northern Yan and the Rong tribes.
Once the nation fell, its mountains and rivers would be shattered.
Every citizen of Great Liang would perish beneath the iron hooves of foreign invaders.
They could not stop them!
There was simply no way to stop them!
Su Ying, Zhang Xiaobei, Gousheng, Wang Dadong, and the others underwent a drastic change of expression. They stood rigid in the wind and snow as if their souls had been ripped away, their minds blank, leaving only endless cold and despair.
Even Wang Yi, who had always been calm and resourceful, felt utterly helpless, his brows drawn into a tight knot.
This was an absolutely hopeless predicament!
Gousheng’s voice trembled with a sob as he said, “Brother Mu, if the Northern Defense Pass falls, then our… our Zhang Family Village will be finished too, won’t it?”
“That’s right! Brother Mu, what do we do now?” Wang Dadong was equally at a loss.
“Don’t panic!” Zhang Muyang’s gaze swept over them, his eyes extraordinarily resolute. Slowly, he said, “Heaven never bars every path! I’ve thought of a plan. Perhaps… we can fight our way to a slim chance of survival!”
“What plan?!”
In an instant, everyone’s eyes fell upon Zhang Muyang, as though they had seized the last stalk of straw that might save their lives.
Zhang Muyang’s gaze sharpened. He spoke each word distinctly.
“We can exploit… the information gap!”
It did not matter what kind of man he was. Once a woman became involved, he might well lose his head.
Now, in order to win over the Rong tribes, the Emperor of Northern Yan had betrothed the princess to the khan’s son. But the princess… was truly in love with Helian Chunshui. Everyone throughout Northern Yan knew it, and the khan’s son certainly knew as well.
The hatred of a man whose wife had been stolen was irreconcilable!
Those two were already as opposed as fire and water.
As long as they were provoked a little, getting them to attack each other the moment they met was by no means impossible!
Wang Dadong could not help interrupting, puzzled. “Brother Mu, what you’re saying makes sense… but the Black Bear and Red Fox divisions came to assist Northern Yan’s vanguard in battle. How could they possibly start fighting each other first?”
“Hmph!”
Zhang Muyang gave a cold laugh and asked, “Brother Yi, where are we?”
Wang Yi immediately understood. “Black Wind Gorge!”
“We’ll take advantage of the moment when the Black Bear and Red Fox divisions are about to reach Black Wind Gorge but have not yet joined up with the vanguard. We’ll disguise ourselves as men from Northern Yan’s vanguard, launch a sudden, vicious attack on them, and then lure them into Black Wind Gorge!”
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“By then, the Rong tribes certainly won’t be able to swallow their anger. They’ll pursue us, and naturally collide with Northern Yan’s vanguard in Black Wind Gorge… A great clash will be unavoidable!”
“We’ll just sit back and enjoy the show!”
A deathly silence descended.
Only the sobbing northwest wind remained, howling furiously through the blizzard.
Zhang Xiaobei, Wang Dadong, and Gousheng were all stunned, their mouths hanging open. They stammered, “Brother Mu, this… can it really work?”
“As long as the plan is meticulous and the action decisive, there’s absolutely a chance!” Zhang Muyang’s tone was filled with certainty.
“Fine! Let’s do it!”
Wang Yi drove his fist into Zhang Muyang’s chest and laughed. “If we pull this off and get the Rong tribes and Northern Yan to turn on each other like dogs fighting over a bone… then the crisis at the Northern Defense Pass may truly have a chance of being reversed!”
A brilliant light bloomed in Su Ying’s beautiful eyes as well. For the first time, her gaze toward Zhang Muyang was filled with undisguised astonishment and admiration.
This man… was calm, decisive, and audacious beyond belief!
In such desperate circumstances, he had actually devised such an unorthodox and ingenious strategy!
The more she looked at him, the more pleasing he seemed.
“All right, enough celebrating!” Zhang Muyang barked. “Time is pressing, and everything depends on this one move… Act at once!”
Once the plan was settled, they immediately split up.
Zhang Xiaobei and Gousheng took Zhang Muyang’s command token and hurried back to the Tiger Hill encampment at top speed. They would present the token and the urgent military report to Wu Kexiong, asking him to lead five hundred iron riders, all clad in the Northern Yan armor captured earlier, to Black Wind Gorge. They were to rendezvous twenty miles northwest of the gorge.
Zhang Muyang, Wang Yi, Wang Dadong, and Su Ying immediately mounted their horses and galloped northwest, in the direction from which the Rong tribes were approaching.
They changed horses without changing riders and raced onward for more than two hours.
At last, scattered lines of fire appeared along the horizon, hazy beneath the swirling snow.
“They’re here!”
The four of them tensed and immediately sought cover.
They saw columns of cavalry struggling forward through the wind and snow.
The Rong cavalry were equipped with extreme simplicity. Many had wrapped rags around their heads, and some did not even possess a decent padded coat, merely rough animal hides wrapped around their bodies. Yet every one of them was fearless of death, savage, and filled with a wild ferocity.
Their living conditions were far harsher than those of fertile and prosperous Great Liang, and even worse than those of Northern Yan. Most of their tribes did not farm, relying entirely on nomadic herding. Every winter, when food became scarce, they could only slaughter livestock or trade hides and furs with Northern Yan and the borderlands of Great Liang in exchange for meager quantities of grain and salt. Their lives were unbearably difficult.
That was precisely why they were filled with greed and longing for the wealth of Great Liang.
Once the Northern Defense Pass was breached, it would mean immeasurable gold and silver, grain, women, and slaves!
The Great Khan’s promise was enough to drive them mad!
How many iron riders were there?
No one could tell. Torch after torch stretched endlessly through the snowstorm, disappearing beyond sight.
A massive weight seemed to press down upon the hearts of Zhang Muyang, Su Ying, and the others, heavy enough to leave them almost unable to breathe.
Gulp.
Wang Dadong swallowed with difficulty and asked, “Brother Mu, do you… do you really think our plan can succeed?”
“Whether it can succeed or not, it has to succeed!” Zhang Muyang stared fixedly at the distant fiery dragon and spoke with absolute resolve. “We have no other choice!”
“Then what do we do now?”
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“Watch them! Keep your eyes on them! Figure out their marching speed and patterns!”
In this desolate wilderness, beneath the terrible weather of driving snow and bitter wind, the Rong cavalry of the Black Bear and Red Fox divisions never dreamed that several pairs of eyes were watching their every move from the darkness, like leopards stalking their prey.
Whenever they moved, Zhang Muyang moved with them.
After observing them for a while, Zhang Muyang barked, “Let’s go! We’ll find the best place for an ambush and rendezvous with Deputy General Wu!”
“You go ahead. I’ll stay here and keep watch, monitoring their movements!”
Wang Dadong volunteered to remain behind and keep watch.
Zhang Muyang gave his shoulder a heavy pat, then turned with Wang Yi and Su Ying and once again galloped toward Black Wind Gorge.
At last, on one of the lesser ridges extending from Black Wind Gorge, they found a small hill.
Cold-resistant shrubs were scattered all around, providing convenient cover.
Without a word, the three immediately set to work, using the terrain and bushes to arrange simple tripwires and pits.
The weather was bitterly cold, and the earth was hard as iron, making excavation extraordinarily difficult.
Fortunately, Zhang Muyang’s Frostfeather Blade was incomparably sharp. As his skill with it increased, the harmony between man and blade seemed to grow, while the blade itself appeared to become keener as well. Drawing upon more than a thousand pounds of force, he used the blade as a shovel, frantically digging hole after hole in the ground, each barely large enough for a horse’s hoof to sink into.
The pits did not need to be large, but there had to be many of them, scattered over a broad area and spread throughout the surrounding terrain.
After nearly two hours of labor—
Clip-clop, clip-clop, clip-clop!
A rapid, muffled thunder of hooves approached.
Wu Kexiong personally led Chen Xiucheng, Liu Yunzhao, and the five hundred reinforcements from the four counties to the rendezvous. Every man wore the armor of Northern Yan’s iron cavalry. From a distance, they were indistinguishable from the real Northern Yan vanguard.
Wu Kexiong had even forgotten Zhang Muyang’s “hidden” identity. The moment he dismounted, he seized Zhang Muyang excitedly, his voice altered with emotion.
“Zhang Muyang! You… you were telling the truth? The Black Bear and Red Fox divisions of the Rong tribes are really here?”
“Absolutely. We saw them with our own eyes!”
“It’s over! It’s all over!”
Who still cared who Zhang Muyang was now?
When Wu Kexiong, Chen Xiucheng, Liu Yunzhao, and the others heard the news brought by Lin Xiaobei and Gousheng, they had already been asleep. They were instantly scared out of their wits.
The sky itself was about to collapse!
This was proof of how much Wu Kexiong trusted Zhang Muyang. Without the slightest hesitation, he had gathered everyone within the time it took a single incense stick to burn, then raced here at full speed.
Wu Kexiong drew several deep breaths, forcing himself to calm down. In a low voice, he said, “Enough talk. Just tell us what we’re supposed to do now.”
Zhang Muyang said grimly, “Under no circumstances can we let them join forces. No matter what, we have to strike them and muddy the waters!”
“Strike them? How?” Wu Kexiong nearly growled the words as he pointed toward the five hundred riders behind him. “We’ve got only five hundred men. You want us to take on more than ten thousand?”
What the hell!
They might as well draw their blades and kill themselves. That would be quicker and more painless.