Chapter Thirteen: Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place

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“The Tang army’s formation is disciplined and its morale is high. This is hardly the ideal time to attack!” Xianyu Liang raised his brows. Seeing that Yelifu She’s attitude had softened, he pressed on while the moment was favorable. “Besides, Red Mountain Fort is like a tasteless morsel—hardly worth swallowing. Since the Tang army has reached this place, they must have come to lift the siege of Lingzhou. If the Protector leads our army north and surrounds Lingzhou, the Tang army certainly won’t stand by and do nothing. They will abandon Red Mountain Fort and be forced to fight us in the open!”

Bulegen was no fool. Seeing Yelifu She’s fierce expression concealing his unease, he summoned his courage and advised, “Protector, do not hesitate any longer. The Tang are good at defense, while we are good at attack. In open battle, we will surely show them the might of our Turkic warriors!”

“An excellent plan!” A sharp, icy glint flashed through Yelifu She’s eyes. “Warfare requires brains! How many men can a little fort like Red Mountain hold? Do you truly believe the Tang army consists of only a few hundred men?”

The Turkic commanders lowered their heads, too frightened to look up after being reprimanded. Seeing the fear in their eyes, Yelifu She felt immensely pleased with himself.

“If the Tang have come to relieve Lingzhou, they must have brought more than this!” Yelifu She continued. “You are fools—all of you are fools! Your mistake was assuming that the Tang army numbered only a few thousand, while we have more than thirty thousand men. If they had only a few thousand troops, would they dare attack us first? Such an obvious flaw, and none of you noticed it! Any Tang army bold enough to attack us must number at least one Guard!”

Under the fubing military system, troop numbers were actually fixed, though units were often understrength. One Guard was divided into left and right armies. Each army commanded one Qin Commandery, two Merit Commanderies, and two Auxiliary Commanderies. Altogether, the ten commanderies made up twelve thousand troops.

Yelifu She could not claim to understand the Tang military system in detail, but he knew its general structure. If the Tang court intended to reinforce Lingzhou, it would certainly appoint a field army commander—someone at least of Grand General rank. A Grand General would directly command twelve thousand men.

“Then where could they be hiding? It is not as though they dug a pit and buried themselves in it,” Xianyu Liang asked, thoroughly cowed by the reprimand yet still unwilling to concede.

“Who knows?” Yelifu She himself had not figured out where the Tang army had gone. Hiding in snow was far more difficult than concealing oneself in grass or woodland. The land around Lingzhou was flat and open, with nowhere capable of concealing a large army.

Bulegen said, “Protector, was that beacon tower not hidden beneath a snowdrift? We failed to discover it before.”

“That beacon tower held only a few men. They could hide in a pit beneath the snow,” Yelifu She snapped. “But if an entire Guard were hiding right under our noses and we still failed to notice, we might as well drown ourselves in our own piss!”

The Turkic commanders were left speechless.

“Pass down my order. Assemble the troops and prepare to attack Lingzhou!”

At Yelifu She’s command, the Turks began to withdraw slowly. They then re-formed their ranks and tended to the wounded. Of course, the Turkic method of treating casualties was brutally simple: those who were gravely wounded and near death had their throats cut to end their suffering. They also gathered all the broken weapons and armor scattered outside the wall of corpses.

Duan Zhigan had already prepared himself to die with his body wrapped in his armor. Yet he had never expected the Turks to launch only a probing attack before falling silent. Now it seemed they were no longer attacking at all, but preparing to withdraw.

Duan Zhigan was baffled. What had happened? Had the Turks suddenly changed their nature?

…

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In truth, Duan Zhigan was not the only one puzzled. When Chen Ying received the report, he too sighed. “Yelifu She is not a man easily deceived!”

In the first battle at Red Mountain Fort, Duan Zhigan’s forces had won a great victory, annihilating more than six hundred enemy troops. Though the achievement was considerable, it had not brought any decisive change to the overall situation. The balance of strength between the two sides remained fundamentally unchanged.

Yelifu She did not move, and Chen Ying likewise held his position.

Yet waiting was agonizing. For the soldiers under Chen Ying’s command, every passing minute and second was torture.

As for pressure, no one bore more of it than Chen Ying. He was responsible for the survival of four thousand eight hundred Tang soldiers and more than two thousand laborers—not to mention the soldiers and civilians of Lingzhou.

Chen Ying had too few resources at his disposal, and only one chance. If he failed, he could do nothing but retreat in defeat. He naturally had no wish to return in disgrace, nor could he simply stand by and watch Lingzhou fall and its people perish. What troubled him most was that he could not determine the true situation inside Bogulü City.

He had sent out more than ten scouting parties, yet none had returned with news of the city. This left Chen Ying unable to make a decision.

“Why don’t we make a dash at Bogulü City first?”

“No!” Chen Ying shook his head firmly and said to Zhang Huaiwei, “Yelifu She has not attacked Red Mountain Fort, and the fort lies far too close to Bogulü City. If we fail to take the city and the Turks return in time, we will be trapped beneath its walls and attacked from front and rear. Then we will face total annihilation!”

Wei Wenzhong muttered, “If the Turks refuse to take the bait, won’t all our efforts have been in vain?”

“Not entirely,” Chen Ying replied. “At least we have captured Red Mountain Fort.”

In truth, Red Mountain Fort was a useless burden in Yelifu She’s eyes, and it was much the same in Chen Ying’s. The beacon tower atop the fort could use smoke signals to inform Lingzhou directly that reinforcements had arrived, but the signal could not be lit casually.

If Chen Ying’s forces set the beacon alight yet failed to break through the Turkic blockade and enter Lingzhou, the morale of the defenders would suffer a severe blow.

That would do more harm than good.

“Are you saying we should simply do nothing?” Zhang Huaiwei was nearly frantic from frustration.

“No,” Chen Ying said. “Gather all the side-mounted snow sleds and form them into a small convoy. Reinforce Red Mountain Fort!”

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“Reinforce Red Mountain Fort?”

Hearing Chen Ying’s order, Zhang Huaiwei was even more confused.

Chen Ying gazed at the rows of side-mounted snow sleds. “Have two sled chariots travel abreast, with the front and rear mutually supporting each other. Advance slowly. Ignore the Turkic scouts and proceed directly toward Red Mountain Fort. If the Turkic cavalry attacks, organize a defensive formation on the spot. We must keep them from discerning our true strength.”

Zhang Huaiwei had only just gone to prepare the departure when, before he could finish, a troop of cavalry came riding through the snow.

“Reporting to the general! An urgent dispatch from Bogulü City!”

“Speak!”

“The previous intelligence was wrong. Bogulü City does not contain twenty thousand Turks, but more than thirty thousand!” The scout gasped for breath. “Apart from the more than eight thousand cavalry taken away by Yelifu She, the city still has three thousand Royal Camp troops and more than six thousand tribal soldiers!”

Upon hearing this, Chen Ying felt as though he had fallen into an icy cellar.

Earlier, Chen Ying had estimated the numbers according to Han population patterns. With a total population of twenty thousand, it would have been impressive to raise six or seven thousand able-bodied men. But that was merely the traditional Han way of thinking. The Turks were a nomadic people.

The Han had a custom of respecting the elderly and cherishing the young. The Turks did not. When disaster struck, this wolf-like people abandoned the old and weak first, retaining only able-bodied men and women. To the Turks, the old and infirm were nothing but a burden.

Thus, when the Turks moved south, they left most of the elderly, children, sick, and disabled behind. Those who went south were almost all in the prime of life. There were some children among them, but they made up only a small proportion.

In truth, Yelifu She could leave boldly without the slightest concern that his base would be raided. An army of ten thousand men simply could not capture Bogulü City.

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