Chapter 141: Native Troops

"What was that noise?" Wen Le asked nervously.

After all, the northern territories of the Great Qian were currently clashing with Yan. No large-scale engagements had broken out yet, but small Yan detachments had been raiding the Qian border like mad lately.

More importantly, the very city they were in had been breached by the Yan people only a few months ago!

It was like a man who had only recently cheated on you—his words simply did not inspire quite the same trust.

And once a city had just been breached, it was hard to feel safe while sitting inside it.

"Bad. Something's happened at the north gate. That's where the Yan dogs came in last time."

The instant Mr. Wen heard that the Yan people had come, he nearly froze with fright.

He was different from Meng Gong. He was merely a scholar kept in the Prince's residence. His side job was serving as the Prince's adviser; his main job was chatting with the Prince and keeping him entertained.

No matter how confidently he had analyzed the grand currents of the realm from inside a warm room earlier, that did nothing to prevent him from panicking when he learned the Yan people had attacked again.

Meng Gong drew a deep breath, grabbed Mr. Wen by the shoulders, shook him several times, and roared:

"Mr. Wen, hurry back and tell His Highness's guards to protect him! I'll mobilize the native troops!"

"All... all right..."

Wen Le swallowed hard and immediately rushed back toward the yamen.

Meng Gong did not linger. He ran straight for the warehouses where the native troops were quartered.

He had not gone far when a group of figures suddenly appeared ahead.

They wore dark blue padded jackets, cloth strips wrapped around their heads, and carried all manner of weapons.

At their head rode a woman past thirty, wearing a red cloak and a hairpin crown.

Before Meng Gong could speak, the woman shouted:

"General Meng! What's causing the disturbance to the north?"

Clearly, these native troops had rushed out the moment they heard the commotion at the north gate. Meng Gong immediately felt much more at ease. At a time like this, he had no attention to spare for formal etiquette. He hurried forward and addressed the mounted woman.

"Lady Daxi, something has probably happened at the north gate. The Yan dogs may have come again."

At the news that the Yan people had arrived, Lady Daxi showed not the slightest trace of panic.

If anything, there was a faint gleam of excitement on her face.

The Wolf Native Troops behind her erupted in excitement as well. Their equipment was poor, with even padded armor in short supply, yet they now let out eager, drawn-out cries.

"Lady Daxi, this officer does not know whether the Yan dogs have already seized the north gate. The city's defenders are scattered everywhere. If the Yan dogs have taken the gate, the whole situation may collapse. Please dispatch your troops immediately and secure the north gate."

"If the Yan people have come, naturally I will fight them. But Lord Meng, we'll keep to the terms agreed when we set out: five taels of silver for every Yan head!"

"Of course!"

Meng Gong immediately thumped his chest, then quickly pointed toward the yamen behind him.

"Please rest assured, my lady. One of our Great Qian's Princes is currently staying in that yamen. If you defend this city today, it will be the same as saving His Highness's life. His Highness and the imperial court will certainly not begrudge you rewards."

To the Great Qian, the Wolf Native Troops were essentially mercenaries.

Back when the Tattoo-Faced Chancellor was suppressing the rebellion in the southwest, he had voluntarily brought a portion of the native chieftains into submission. Only by borrowing their strength had he finally pacified the southwest.

Afterward, whenever rebellions or uprisings broke out in the Great Qian's interior, Wolf Native Troops were often mobilized to help suppress them.

Their equipment was poor, but they fought with extraordinary ferocity and had no fear of death.

Nominally, they were subjects of the Great Qian and acknowledged the Great Qian's emperor as their emperor. In reality, however, their territories in the southwest were more like independent kingdoms unto themselves.

Of course, asking for bounty money was perfectly normal. Even troops maintained by the imperial court had to be paid, and in wartime enemy heads could be exchanged for rewards and military merit. These Wolf Native Troops had come all the way from Qian's southwest to the north. They certainly had not come to bankrupt their own families in the name of serving the emperor.

After receiving Meng Gong's guarantee, Lady Daxi opened her mouth and released a long cry from deep in her throat.

A call like this could be heard in many folk songs in later generations.

But Lady Daxi's cry now carried a hard, ringing intent to kill.

"Men! Follow me and kill the Yan!"

Lady Daxi charged at the front on horseback. The Wolf Native Troops behind her surged forward with even greater ferocity, running like swift hunting leopards.

They were children of the mountains. Those legs of theirs could cross mountain paths as easily as level ground. Running over flat streets naturally made them faster still.

Although Lady Daxi was mounted, quite a few of the native soldiers behind her actually overtook her.

Meng Gong immediately ran after them. As he passed the yamen, he happened to see His Highness emerging through the entrance with guards supporting him.

"Your Highness!"

"General Meng, have the Yan people really attacked again?"

After hearing that something had happened at the north gate, Prince Fu, who had just been preparing to wash his feet and go to bed, had leaped up on the spot.

Admittedly, he had not leaped very high.

Then he had fallen straight to the floor.

"Your Highness, please take shelter immediately. And please don't remain in this yamen."

Meng Gong was a military man. His father had once been a general under the Tattoo-Faced Chancellor capable of holding an entire front on his own, so naturally Meng Gong was not the superstitious sort.

The reason he did not want Prince Fu to remain in the yamen was simply because the place was far too obvious a target.

Earlier that day, he had questioned locals about what happened when the Yan people entered the city last time. He had learned that after breaking through the gate, they had charged directly for the yamen.

Prince Fu was so frightened that the fat all over his body rippled.

He was merely a feudal Prince. Though perceptive and clever, the Great Qian had always kept its feudal Princes "confined" to their fiefs and raised them like pigs. As a result, he had never truly experienced anything like this.

Even so, Prince Fu immediately pulled a bright yellow imperial edict from inside his robes and stuffed it into Meng Gong's hands without hesitation.

In a trembling voice, he shouted:

"General Meng, with this you can mobilize the garrison inside Mianzhou City. And... and..."

Prince Fu turned and pointed at the guards from his residence standing beside him.

"Leave me two of these guards to support me while I walk. Take all the rest with you. When you're trying to get something done, you can't have no one at your side."

Wen Le froze when he heard this. Instinctively, he wanted to stop the Prince.

But Meng Gong spoke first.

"Then what about Your Highness's safety?"

"If the city falls, what safety would I have left? General Meng, hurry! I... I... I'll find somewhere to hide first."

"Thank you for your trust, Your Highness!"

Meng Gong's father had been suppressed by the imperial court because of the affair involving the Tattoo-Faced Chancellor. He had died frustrated and unrecognized. Meng Gong had been implicated through his father, and his official rank had remained low ever since.

This time, he had actually traveled north with the column only as a guide for the Wolf Native Troops.

He was genuinely grateful to Prince Fu.

"Mr. Wen, please protect His Highness. You men, come with me!"

Without the slightest hesitation, Meng Gong took most of the Prince's guards and ran after the Wolf Native Troops toward the north gate.

Mr. Wen supported Prince Fu.

He could feel Prince Fu trembling.

Prince Fu could feel Mr. Wen trembling.

The two of them shook together, and as each fed off the other's trembling, they shook harder and harder.

Prince Fu suddenly said, caught between laughter and tears:

"No, Wen Le, damn it—are you supporting me, or am I supporting you?"

...

Mianzhou City's north gate... tonight... was taken by the same army for the second time.

Fan Li stood at the very front like an iron tower, specifically slaughtering any defenders who tried to approach the gate. The Blind Man stood behind him, watching for any hidden arrows that might come his way.

Zheng Fan charged and killed alongside A'Ming, Xue San, the Fourth Lady, and the others.

Mianzhou City's defenders had indeed reacted faster than last time, but the scattered groups of soldiers that arrived in succession were routed before they could even get close to the gate.

At that moment, the first contingent of cavalry had already charged through the wide-open north gate.

The man at their head was not Liang Cheng.

It was Huo Guang.

The Huo Clan had many people and too few heads to their name, so they were taking the vanguard this time.

The first wave of more than a hundred cavalry charged directly at the approaching defenders. When those soldiers saw that cavalry had already entered the city, their morale plunged to rock bottom. Then, seeing the horsemen charging straight at them, they immediately broke and fled.

A smile appeared at the corner of Zheng Fan's mouth.

At last, the plot had returned to a familiar rhythm.

The second wave of cavalry entered the city as well. This time it was barbarian cavalry personally led by Liang Cheng.

Naturally, cavalry could not simply pour into a city in one great mob. The gate was only so wide. When Liang Cheng launched the charge, he had arranged the riders in successive echelons precisely to minimize congestion at the entrance.

Once Liang Cheng led the second hundred cavalry inside, Huo Guang immediately led his Huo Clan troops charging toward the center of the city.

The yamen.

The yamen.

Huo Guang and the Huo Clan men around him had naturally heard how Zheng Fan had taken the city and earned merit last time.

The important people were in the yamen.

The heads in the yamen were worth money.

One of those heads could count for several ordinary ones.

Whether their wives, children, and clansmen could regain their freedom depended on how hard they themselves fought for it!

But just then, a long cry suddenly sounded from the street ahead.

"Wuuuuuuuu...!"

It sounded like hunters in the mountains pursuing a wild beast.

Liang Cheng's gaze immediately sharpened.

As an exceptionally capable commander, he naturally possessed skills of his own. Among them was something that could almost be called a commander's instinct.

That sound.

That momentum.

Liang Cheng immediately shouted:

"There's an ambush inside the city!"

There were indeed troops inside the city, though they were not actually an ambush. No one could possibly have calculated that Green Willow Fortress's garrison would pay another visit tonight.

But to Liang Cheng, under the present circumstances, whether the enemy had known in advance or not made no difference.

For his side, they amounted to an ambush.

Without the slightest hesitation, Liang Cheng ordered:

"Turn around! Withdraw!"

He could certainly have chosen to charge.

Ambush or not, they could all rush forward together and find out which side was harder!

But Liang Cheng did not dare.

Not because he was afraid.

As the commander, he was responsible to Zheng Fan, his Master.

These cavalry were all part of his Master's foundation, painstakingly accumulated piece by piece. He could not throw them into a gamble like this and simply hope for the best.

Most importantly, inside a city, cavalry lost virtually all their advantages.

They could even become disadvantages.

Liang Cheng disliked this way of thinking about war.

War was war. People would die. People were certain to die.

But he truly did not want to return after losing too many men and then have his Master spend every day squatting atop Green Willow Fortress's wall, sighing miserably over the losses.

The barbarian soldiers behind Liang Cheng immediately began shouting instructions to their comrades farther back. They did not all turn their horses and rush for the exit at once. If the rear ranks collided head-on with the front, then those trying to leave would be unable to get out, and those trying to enter would be unable to get in.

The cavalry at the front suddenly stopping did cause some confusion among the riders entering behind them. But the benefit of Liang Cheng's earlier echelon arrangement now became clear.

After only a brief spell of disorder, the cavalry at the rear began withdrawing from the city.

At that very moment, Lady Daxi and her Wolf Native Troops came charging in.

Zheng Fan stared in astonishment at the strangely dressed soldiers who had suddenly appeared ahead.

The Blind Man's voice sounded directly in his mind.

"Master, they're Wolf Native Troops under the native chieftains of Qian's southwest!"

Then the Blind Man, their human radar, added:

"Too many!"

The Wolf Native Troops came at astonishing speed.

And they were different from ordinary Qian soldiers.

Qian's northern frontier troops had always carried a fear of Yan's army carved deep into their bones.

That fear came from the "Yinlang Across the Land" catastrophe a century ago.

It also came from the State of Qian's submissive posture toward Yan throughout the century since.

But the Wolf Native Troops carried no such burden.

When they saw the Yan cavalry ahead, it was as though they were looking at gleaming ingots of silver!

The street was only so wide. Many impatient Wolf Native Troops began scrambling over walls as they ran, and some even raced along the rooftops on either side.

They screamed.

They howled.

They knew no fear.

Huo Guang's vanguard cavalry already had forward momentum, while the Wolf Native Troops came too quickly from the opposite direction. Neither side had any real time to think before they smashed directly into one another.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

The crashes rang out.

The combined weight of riders and warhorses sent the first Wolf Native Troops flying. Those who were not knocked away suffered shattered bones.

But almost immediately, the Wolf Native Troops behind them surged forward like a tide.

They leaped down from the houses on both sides, grabbed riders from their saddles and dragged them to the ground. They hooked at horses' legs. They fought with utter disregard for death, using every method they could to win room for the companions behind them.

This was not war.

It was like ants fearlessly tearing into an elephant!

Fan Li's axe smashed one native soldier away, but the next instant two arrows struck his right arm.

Arrows began pouring in wildly from every direction.

"RAAAAGH!"

Fan Li roared and swept away another two Wolf Native Troops who tried to close on him.

The Blind Man spread both hands, trying to shield Fan Li from the arrows, but there were simply too many. Worse, Wolf Native Troops kept darting in from the flanks, swift as leopards.

The Fourth Lady's threads constantly whirled around her, mercilessly strangling the enemies nearby.

Zheng Fan roared as well and cut down a native soldier.

Just then, more than a thousand defenders suddenly appeared along the walls on either side. Many carried bows and crossbows.

These were the city defenders Meng Gong had rallied with the help of the imperial edict and the Prince's guards.

And still more defenders were hurrying this way.

"Loose!"

Meng Gong gave the order without hesitation.

Thud!

A'Ming shifted sideways and put himself in front of the Fourth Lady.

A crossbow bolt punched into his abdomen.

He had taken the shot for her.

There were already three other arrows sticking out of A'Ming, all of them wounds taken while shielding his companions.

In a true battlefield melee, the strength of an individual Martial Artist rarely determined the outcome.

This was not a duel.

Back at the relay station, Hero Chen had beaten Zheng Fan, the Blind Man, and Xue San so badly they could barely fight back. But that was also because Zheng Fan had so few people with him. Had Green Willow Fortress's barbarian soldiers been present, Hero Chen would likewise have found it difficult to escape death if he refused to flee.

Shatuo Queshi had once possessed overwhelming martial grandeur, yet he had still died surrounded by the iron cavalry of the Zhenbei Army.

"Withdraw!"

Liang Cheng had already given the order to retreat.

The reason Zheng Fan and the others had not immediately fallen back was partly to buy time for the cavalry behind them, and partly because they wanted to support Huo Guang and the others at the front.

But now, they truly had no choice but to retreat.

Thinking selfishly for a moment, Zheng Fan would rather every soldier from Green Willow Fortress die here than lose even one of the Demon Kings under him in some senseless fashion.

"ROAR!"

Fan Li bellowed again. Axe in his right hand, he charged forward and launched another savage assault, forcibly driving the fearless Wolf Native Troops back a short distance.

Then he turned and sprinted toward the city gate.

Zheng Fan reached out and seized the hand a barbarian soldier extended toward him. The man hauled him onto the horse. The others did the same, each pulled onto a mount by their own men.

Only Fan Li kept accelerating madly on foot.

He ran faster than the horses.

Everyone else was retreating too.

But the hundred cavalry in Huo Guang's first wave had already been swallowed by the tide of native troops.

The native soldiers used every method at their disposal to drag the riders from their horses. The cavalry might be wearing armor, but no one could seal himself inside an airtight iron can.

Screams rang out without end.

Worse, because all the men around Huo Guang were his own clansmen, they had not turned their horses and disengaged the moment Liang Cheng first gave the order.

They had tried to rescue their relatives and bring them back.

That brief delay was enough for their entire group to be surrounded.

Of course, in doing so, they had inadvertently bought enough time for the troops behind them to withdraw successfully through the gate.

Zheng Fan's eyes turned red.

Rage burned in his chest.

This was not a game.

Every soldier being lost here was a living, breathing person.

The Demon Maru seemed to sense Zheng Fan's fury and stirred as though it wanted to awaken.

Zheng Fan clenched his teeth and forcibly suppressed its agitation.

He agreed with Liang Cheng's judgment.

Inside the city, cavalry held no advantage!

"AAAAAAAGH!"

Huo Guang roared. Red light flared around him as his long saber hacked down several Wolf Native Troops in succession.

The next instant, an arrow struck him in the head.

The force was tremendous. Most of the shaft punched straight through, leaving only the feathered tail lodged at his forehead.

An Eighth-Grade Martial Artist had died in the chaos of a battlefield melee.

It was an extraordinarily stifling way to die.

Just like the Eighth-Grade old man from several months ago, facing the rolling tide of barbarian iron cavalry.

Lady Daxi lowered the bow in her hands.

Her gaze swept over the armor worn by the dead Yan soldiers.

The State of Qian prohibited fine military equipment such as armor from being sold into the territories of the native chieftains.

Everyone knew why.

But anything captured on the battlefield belonged to them!

Lady Daxi raised her head and looked toward the city gate.

The Yan people were retreating.

Some Wolf Native Troops had already begun cutting off heads and stripping armor from the Yan corpses, but many more who had yet to claim a head rushed toward the gate of their own accord.

They wanted to kill Yan soldiers.

Yan heads, Yan armor, even the warhorses beneath Yan riders all were temptations they could not resist!

"Wuuuuuuuu...!"

Lady Daxi released another long cry.

This was not a signal to halt.

It was Pursuit!

The Wolf Native Troops erupted. They ran with everything they had, even chasing the enemy out through the city gate.

Lady Daxi spurred her horse forward as well.

As she passed through the gate, Meng Gong shouted anxiously from the gate tower above:

"My lady! Don't pursue a desperate enemy! Don't chase them outside! Don't go!"

Lady Daxi looked up, swept her gaze over Meng Gong, and gave a disdainful smile.

The people of Qian feared the people of Yan like tigers.

But as far as she was concerned—

The Yan people... were nothing special!

(End of Chapter)