Chapter 140: A Brilliant Display!

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If there were two thousand men or more, Li Yun would not even consider holding Linshui. It was only a county town, after all, with low walls and little real advantage from its terrain.

In a town like this, once the disparity in strength became too great, it would offer no advantage at all. On the contrary, it would become a cage trapping Li Yun’s forces, a burden that hindered their mobility.

But if there were only a little over a thousand men, Li Yun was not particularly afraid.

He had a respectable number of men under his command now, and with this small county town to rely on, holding the place for a while would not be difficult.

Even in the worst case, if his side suffered a setback, the disparity in numbers would still not be great enough for the enemy to encircle Linshui completely. If Li Yun wished to withdraw, it would not be difficult.

After eating a few mouthfuls, Li Yun mounted his horse and rode out of Linshui with Su Sheng. They galloped more than ten miles eastward, and sure enough, a military force soon came into view.

Compared with the defenders of Linshui that Li Yun had seen earlier, this army looked rather bedraggled, and its formation was far from orderly.

Their uniforms were not even the same color.

At least the rebel troops previously stationed in Linshui had all worn red, making them easy to identify.

Li Yun glanced at them from a distance, but could not see them clearly. He moved closer and found a high vantage point.

An experienced old soldier accompanying Su Sheng took one look and said, “Young General, Commandant Li, there are roughly…”

“Thirteen hundred men.”

Li Yun stroked his chin and looked toward the distant army as well. He could not estimate their numbers, however, so he asked, “Brother, how did you figure that out? Teach me.”

The old soldier smiled. “I was a scout when I followed the Grand General into battle. Counting enemy forces is the most basic skill a scout possesses.”

“Some of the more capable scouts only need one distant glance to estimate the numbers fairly accurately. If they are close enough, they can even tell how many camp followers there are.”

“That skill depends partly on eyesight and partly on experience. I cannot teach it to Commandant Li overnight.”

Li Yun thought for a moment, then smiled. “I have two brothers under my command. After this battle is over, would you teach them?”

At Cang Mountain Stronghold, Li Zheng was the fastest runner, but the sharpest eyes belonged to Er Leng. Unfortunately, Er Leng was not very bright. He was still at Ten Kings Stronghold in Qingyang County and had not been brought out by Li Yun.

Hearing Li Yun speak so courteously, the old soldier readily nodded. “If they are still serving under Commandant Li by then, naturally there will be no problem.”

“Now that we know their numbers…”

Li Yun turned to Su Sheng. “Let us return to the town. We will test them first and see what sort of men they are.”

Li Yun’s understanding of the Yue Prefecture rebels still extended only to the troops led by He Gang and the defenders of Linshui County.

But according to what he knew, both groups were soldiers from Yue Prefecture, not troops under General Zhao, the man who had seized Qiantang.

Judging from the situation, the men advancing on Linshui were probably soldiers personally led by General Zhao. They had managed to take a major city like Qiantang, so their fighting ability could not be underestimated.

To be safe, Li Yun would first hold the town, observe the battle, and make his judgment afterward.

If these thirteen hundred men fought like the soldiers around He Gang, Li Yun would not even need to rely on the city walls. A few charges might be enough to rout the enemy completely.

After returning to the county town with Su Sheng, they did not have to wait long before the rebel army arrived beneath the walls. They did not attack immediately, however, and instead watched the town for a while.

Roughly half an hour later, the disheveled rebels began forming ranks outside the town, preparing to assault it.

Standing atop the walls, Li Yun narrowed his eyes as he looked down at them and gave a soft laugh. “That General Zhao seems to have some ability. These men have not been under his command for long, yet even an assault on a fortified town—a task that requires men to throw away their lives—they carry out in an orderly fashion.”

Su Sheng opened his mouth, hesitated for a moment, and finally sighed. “His name is Zhao Cheng. I actually met him once, years ago.”

“He is four years younger than I am.”

Li Yun froze and looked back at Su Sheng.

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Su Sheng’s expression remained calm. “His father was a great general under my father’s command. In our early years, the two families were quite close. Later, my father retired from service, while Uncle Zhao was transferred elsewhere and appointed as a general. He offended the court…”

“He was convicted and executed, and his family estate was confiscated.”

Li Yun clicked his tongue and smiled. “So there is a story behind all this. Young General, how did you know?”

“When he was in Yue Prefecture, he raised a banner declaring that he would avenge his father.”

“So that is why the court sent Grand General Su out,” Li Yun said.

He took a bow and arrows from his back. As he drew the bow and took aim, he continued, “It was to have your family clean up its own household.”

“‘Clean up our own household’ would be putting it too strongly,” Su Sheng said quietly. “After my father retired, Uncle Zhao was promoted. His rank became exactly what my father’s had once been. We can only say that our two families had some connection.”

Li Yun released his arrow. A scream rose from beneath the walls, and he smiled. “When the court dismisses a great general, it naturally has to promote his subordinates as well. Otherwise, the court will feel uneasy.”

“But he still could not escape the court’s reckoning, could he?”

Su Sheng drew a deep breath, took up his own bow, and began to draw it. “The court ordered my father to escort Zhao Cheng to the capital and deliver him for trial.”

He loosed the arrow with force and said expressionlessly, “We have not seen each other for many years. I wonder what he looks like now.”

After the two men fired several more arrows, the enemy finally came within a few dozen paces of the walls. They too began drawing their bows and shooting upward.

The walls of Linshui were low, making them easy targets. Li Yun twisted aside to avoid an arrow and crouched behind a crenellation. By then, the rebels below were only twenty or thirty paces from the town gate.

Li Yun removed his face guard and secured it over his face. Then he seized a spear from beside him and said in a deep voice, “Young General, Linshui’s gate is not sturdy. I doubt it can hold for long. I will defend the gate. The walls are yours!”

With that, Li Yun descended the walls without looking back.

Su Sheng watched his retreating figure and could not help muttering, “That boy has started ordering me around.”

After saying this, he glanced left and right, arranged the defenses, and drew his saber. He could not help laughing. “And yet I am perfectly willing to be ordered about. How strange.”

If the young general’s knowledge had been broader, he might have given that strange feeling its proper name.

Charisma.

Or rather, the personal charisma unique to a leader.

…

The gate of Linshui was nothing like the thick, iron-clad wooden gates of a major city. It was only about two inches thick, and after so many years, it was hardly sturdy.

By the time Li Yun reached the gatehouse, the gate had already been battered to the verge of collapse.

Dragging his spear behind him, Li Yun summoned the core members of the bandit-suppression squad and shouted, “Deng Yang!”

“Bring the men down!”

Deng Yang roared in response. Carrying two iron hammers, he hurried over with his men.

The heads of these hammers were not especially large, each only about the size of an egg. They were nowhere near as exaggerated as the hammers seen in television dramas from another world, but they were designed specifically to break armor and were extremely powerful.

In fact, such hammers were also perfectly suited to someone as strong as Li Yun. On a battlefield, they could often produce remarkable results. It was simply that a spear was more efficient.

After Deng Yang shouted, twenty or thirty men followed him and took their places behind Li Yun. Together, they strode toward the gate.

Every one of them had been a hardened bandit.

The moment they reached the gate, the already weakened structure was suddenly shoved down with a thunderous crash. Before the rebels outside had time to celebrate, a pitch-black spearhead appeared before them!

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Li Yun had deliberately left the gate undefended.

When the rebels pushed against it, there had not even been anyone resisting from inside.

For the time being, Li Yun’s forces relied primarily on individual martial prowess, with Li Yun himself standing at the peak of that strength.

That meant their abilities were difficult to display when the battlefield was spread too widely. If the entire length of the walls became a battlefield, it would actually work against them.

Now that the gate had been opened, a single passageway lay exposed before the rebels. Naturally, they surged toward it in a great mass.

And for Li Yun and his men, that narrow entrance was a place where one man could hold the line against an army.

Clad in full iron armor, with even his face covered by a steel guard, Li Yun stood at the very front. He swept his spear across, sending two or three men tumbling to the ground.

Deng Yang’s eyes were red with fury as he charged forward. He brought an iron hammer down upon the chest of an armored rebel. The man vomited blood and collapsed.

That was the reason a turtle feared an iron hammer.

The greatest threat to armor like Li Yun’s on the battlefield was precisely this sort of armor-breaking hammer.

Zhang Hu was just as fierce as a maddened tiger. The three men occupied the gate passage, and within only a few breaths they had wounded or killed seven or eight rebels.

The rebels who had surged into the passage were frightened into retreating.

Even as they withdrew, however, they did so in an orderly manner. Their formation did not collapse, and no one was trampled.

That alone made them far superior to the men led by He Gang.

Li Yun remembered that even He Gang’s followers wore matching uniforms and had begun equipping themselves with armor, while these men had neither.

He gave a cold inward laugh.

The venture founded by Qiu Dian in Yue Prefecture had been impure from the very beginning!

With that thought, Li Yun sprang forward and drove his spear into a rebel’s shoulder. He bore down with all his strength, nearly piercing straight through the man.

In a deep voice, Li Yun shouted, “Rebellion and disorder bring punishment upon the entire family!”

“Lay down your weapons and surrender. All past offenses will be forgiven!”

The rebels had no intention of listening. Howling, they charged again.

Li Yun swept one hand forward and shouted, “Kill them!”

The twenty or thirty bandit-born members of the bandit-suppression squad followed Li Yun into a bloody battle in the gate passage.

Above them, Su Sheng—born into a family of generals—directed the defense along the walls with calm precision. After a little less than half an hour, he glanced toward the gate and suddenly froze, staring in utter disbelief.

There stood Li Yun, drenched in blood, leading the equally blood-soaked bandit-suppression squad.

They had fought their way out from within the town and all the way beyond the gate!

Covered in blood like a god of slaughter, Li Yun emerged from the town gate with his spear in hand. He lifted his head toward the rebels before him and let out a roar like a tiger.

“Follow me! Charge through them!”

I am home, I am home. Updates should return to normal from here on!

End of chapter