Chapter Thirty-Nine: Shot to Pieces

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The question came so abruptly that even Chen Ying had not expected anyone in the New Army to dare challenge him. He turned and followed the voice with his eyes, spotting a man in his forties. The man had a pale, lean face and a short, thick black beard beneath his chin. He was a dignified figure, carrying the refined air of a scholar.

Chen Ying did not know him. Puzzled, he looked toward Wei Wenzhong, who was in charge of reorganizing the troops and ought to know all ten regimental commanders.

Seeing Chen Ying’s questioning gaze, Wei Wenzhong explained, “This is Meng Zechen, acting commander of the Seventh Regiment.”

The moment Wei Wenzhong finished speaking, another man stepped out from among the New Army. He was over thirty, dark-faced, broad-shouldered, and heavily bearded. Pointing at Meng Zechen, he cursed, “You bastard! Liu Tong, you’ve got your damned head tucked between your legs. Hiding like a coward—what kind of man are you?”

Chen Ying pointed at the dark-faced man. “And who are you?”

“Your subordinate is Bi Xin, formerly the Left Military Commandant and Chief of Staff of the Liang rebels’ puppet court!” Bi Xin replied. “This man is neither surnamed Meng nor called Meng Zechen. He is Liu Tong, the Left Military Commandant of the Liang rebels’ puppet court!”

Meng Zechen stepped forward sheepishly and bowed. “Reporting to the Commandant, this subordinate is Liu Tong of Lingzhou.”

Chen Ying understood why Liu Tong had changed his name. He had already surrendered to Liang Shidu, and now he had surrendered to the Tang. If anyone came looking for an accounting in the future, the stain upon him could never be washed away. Nevertheless, being exposed in front of everyone left him standing there in considerable embarrassment.

Wei Wenzhong glanced at the silent Chen Ying and lowered his voice. “Commandant, we have fewer than a thousand troops inside the city, along with more than twenty thousand Turks. If these three thousand men take advantage of the opportunity to cause trouble, Chief Secretary Yang will never be able to suppress them. We may well find ourselves attacked from both sides.”

Chen Ying was not a stubborn man. Hearing the reason in Wei Wenzhong’s words, he nodded. “Very well. We shall do that.”

Liang Shidu was desperately short of supplies, and his troops were equipped miserably. The Right Guard, however, had excellent equipment. When Chen Ying had set out from Chang’an, he had also brought a large quantity of weapons and armor. The Liang soldiers had now changed into Tang-style armor and uniforms, making them indistinguishable from Tang troops.

Since joining the army, Chen Ying had never had the opportunity to build a force of his own. He had always been sewing fine garments for others. Whether in the Jingzhou Assault Commandery or under the two Merit Commanderies, a single imperial edict was enough to make him surrender his authority obediently. Now, however, a few thoughts of his own had begun to form.

The surrendered Liang soldiers had no ties to the Tang commanders. Apart from relying on him, they had nowhere else to turn. Why not seize this chance to forge them into his personal force?

With that thought, Chen Ying said, “Under regulations, these ten regiments should form at least two commanderies. But we do not currently have enough officers. Transfer three hundred men from each of the First Merit, Second Merit, First Auxiliary, and Second Auxiliary Commanderies into one regiment apiece.”

“Of the remaining six regiments, merge one into the Guard Regiment. Form the other five into the Guard Commandery’s Assault Commandery. Appoint Zhang Huaiwei as Assault Commandant of the Guard Commandery, Liang Zan as Left Assistant Guoyi Commandant of the Guard, and Liu Tong as Right Assistant Guoyi Commandant and commander of the First Guard Regiment.”

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At Chen Ying’s decision, delight appeared on the faces of the Right Guard’s commanders.

The Tang military establishment was divided into three grades. An upper commandery had twelve hundred men, sometimes increased to fifteen hundred; a middle commandery had a thousand; and a lower commandery had eight hundred. Although their commanders all held the title of Assault Commandant, their ranks varied: Junior Fifth Rank, Lower; Senior Sixth Rank, Upper; and Senior Sixth Rank, Lower.

Because the Eastern Palace Right Guard held a slightly higher status, its so-called Assault Commandants were all Junior Fifth Rank, Lower. Yet Chen Ying had extracted the mounted regiments from each Assault Commandery and concentrated them elsewhere, leaving each commandery in control of only three infantry regiments. Their personal forces numbered barely more than nine hundred men. If Chen Ying had not formally assigned those men to their establishments, they would all have been demoted by one rank, to Junior Fifth Rank, Lower.

Now Chen Ying had increased each of their forces by one regiment. The court would generally tacitly approve such an arrangement, allowing them to retain their existing rank of Junior Fifth Rank, Lower. Moreover, after so many consecutive victories, the court would surely reward them for their achievements with further promotions.

Reorganizing the army in the middle of a battlefield was probably something only Chen Ying could have managed. Yet from beginning to end, Ashina She'erbo had never ordered his troops to attack.

The Tang soldiers regarded the fifteen thousand Turks as nothing more than an irrelevance, and pride swelled within them. Their morale rose by far more than a little, almost without their realizing it.

Nearly half an hour later, Chen Ying finally completed the reorganization. Only then did he discover how considerate Wei Wenzhong had been. The latter had even brought along the bed-crossbow sleds Chen Ying had modified: a full sixty of them.

Chen Ying naturally assigned all sixty sled-mounted bed crossbows to the Guard Commandery’s Assault Commandery.

Overjoyed, Chen Ying said, “The Guard Commandery will attack! Begin by greeting them with the heavy crossbows!”

Zhang Huaiwei directed the sixty sled-mounted bed crossbows into a line beneath Wild Boar Ridge. Liu Tong, the Right Assistant Guoyi Commandant, meanwhile displayed the classic Tang infantry method of battle. Powerful crossbows were deployed to protect the bed crossbows, forming three layers of defense at long, medium, and close range with bed crossbows, strong crossbows, and heavy bows.

When Ashina Shibo saw the Tang army beginning to arrange its crossbow formation, he no longer dared wait.

For most of its history, the steppe had possessed no written language, but it had preserved legends passed down by word of mouth. One such legend was very short—only four words:

“Once arrayed, do not fight.”

It meant that once a Han army had completed its battle formation, one should simply abandon the fight and run as far away as possible. In the past, Li Ling had led five thousand Han soldiers across more than two thousand miles of battle. More than a hundred thousand Xiongnu had still been unable to crush him. That alone showed how terrifying Han crossbows could be.

In some films and television dramas, cavalry archers shoot at an enemy and kill his warhorse. That is pure nonsense. Take the bows used by Turkic cavalry as an example. With a draw weight of only seven *shi*, they had a range of fifty paces and an effective range of thirty. They could barely deal with leather armor, and against a galloping warhorse they were effective only within twenty paces.

At twenty paces, however, a warhorse could cover the distance in an instant. By the time the arrow was loosed, the enemy’s horse would already be upon the archer.

Powerful crossbows were different. They could easily pierce a warhorse’s hard skull, and might even pass completely through its chest.

Just as Ashina Simo led the Turkic cavalry down the slope, the battlefield erupted with a shrill, mournful whistling.

One hundred and eighty enormous bolts, each as thick as a child’s arm, descended upon them like a black cloud.

Any Turk struck by a bed-crossbow bolt died with his body pierced through, no matter what kind of shield he carried. At times, the powerful bolts passed through the corpses of two or three Turks in succession.

The Turks’ originally dense and orderly charge was thrown into utter chaos by the sixty bed crossbows and their one hundred and eighty gigantic bolts.

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After losing five or six hundred horsemen, the Turkic cavalry finally reached a distance of roughly two hundred paces from the Tang line.

Then the air filled with the shrill sound of arrows tearing through the sky. The piercing noise made men’s eardrums ache, their scalps itch, and their minds verge on madness.

Ashina Simo’s troops fell in swathes, like wheat beneath a scythe. A powerful crossbow could pierce a man outright; even when it missed and struck a horse, it was enough to inflict grievous injury.

Ashina Simo deserved his reputation as a gifted young Turkic general—though he was only fifteen at the time. Despite the devastating losses among his cavalry, not one of them paused. The dead were given no consideration, and those thrown from their horses had only one fate: to be trampled into a pool of flesh beneath the hooves of the comrades charging behind them.

Before the crossbows could even fire a second volley, the cavalry had already entered the bowmen’s range.

“Serve them with the heavy bows!”

This time, the Guard Commandery’s Assault Commandery was not alone. The First Merit, Second Merit, First Auxiliary, and Second Auxiliary Assault Commanderies all joined in, sending nearly three thousand powerful bows into a concentrated volley.

Crossbows could fire only in a straight line, whereas arrows could be shot in an arc. They climbed to their highest point, then descended along a parabola, using their tremendous kinetic force to kill the enemy.

Chen Ying was just preparing to order the lancers into action when an unbelievable scene unfolded.

The Turks were now fewer than fifty paces from the Tang battle line. Yet they suddenly wheeled their horses around and fled for their lives toward Wild Boar Ridge.

“Holy shit! Three volleys of arrows and they’ve already broken!”