When the manor lord goes to war, how could his personal guards not follow? The Yun Family Manor was filled with shouts and rallying cries. Those medical soldiers who had trained in Shuofang years ago returned from all directions to rejoin the ranks. A full eight hundred personal guards, plus more than a hundred volunteer garrison soldiers, turned the Yun Family Manor into practically an ocean of warriors.
Old Madam Yun sat at the main gate, bowing in gratitude to each warrior who passed before her. Xinyue repeatedly entreated them, placing coral prayer beads on a wooden tray. As each warrior came forward, Xinyue hung the beads around their necks. Na Rimu also helped beside her. The future head of the Yun Family, three-year-old Yun Shou, dressed in the smallest official robes, also followed his mother in asking the personal guards to take good care of his father.
After all the warriors had passed once before the Yun residence gates, Old Madam Yun rose from her chair and bowed to the dense crowd of warriors, saying loudly: “This journey will have mountains upon mountains and waters upon waters, with many hardships ahead. I only pray that you gentlemen will return victorious. We who remain at home will certainly care for your elderly parents, support your young children, keep our gates tightly closed, and dare not act improperly. Should we violate this, may heaven and earth both forsake us.”
Liu Jinbao stood at the forefront, cupping his hands and loudly expressing thanks: “We entrust家中事 to you; we shall shoulder the frontier matters alone. When we return victorious, we shall drink together.”
After speaking, Liu Jinbao removed his helmet, knelt on one knee, and prayed that the elders would take care of their health and enjoy longevity, and that the young ones would grow strong without illness or disaster.
Whether they were merchants who had come to watch the excitement or families from the manor, all knelt on one knee and loudly pledged their word, congratulating the warriors on certain victory and full honors.
After the ceremony concluded, Liu Jinbao led the troops out of the manor toward the Wei River, where two hundred retainers sent by the Cheng, Niu, Qin, and Yuchi families awaited to accompany Yun Ye to Liaodong.
After everyone had left, Gou Zi drove a horse cart toward the Wei River as well. Inside the cart, Wu She sat with eyes closed, resting. Seeing Gou Zi fidgeting impatiently, he said: “Little Gou Zi, this old man has never been to a battlefield. Who says only you young people can go, and won’t allow this old man to also take a look at the battlefield? Drive properly. When we reach the military camp, I’ll ask Marquis Yun to get you the finest suit of armor. Don’t feel embarrassed about it. When we return, this old man will also arrange a wife for you. Being the master of you little pups has really been a huge loss for me.”
Hearing Wu She say this, Gou Zi immediately cheered up. He had long coveted the Yun Family’s armor. As for the matter of a wife, he never thought it would be any problem.
As they neared the military camp, they heard the rapid sound of horse hooves approaching from behind. Gou Zi irritably moved the cart to the right side of the road. Anyone galloping wildly on such roads was definitely no good person—stones everywhere and no care for the horses at all. Only wastrels would do such a thing.
However, he soon became happy, because the wastrel was Dan Ying. He greatly envied those who had armor to wear, especially the completely jet-black secret Yun Family iron armor. Dan Ying rode a tall horse—who knows where he got it from—at least half a head taller than other horses. Victory hooks hung with horse lances, two short spears were strapped to his back, flying claws wrapped around his waist, a longbow and quiver on the horse’s right side, a horizontal blade tucked under his ribs, and a pair of hammers on the horse’s rear. The whole person looked imposing and brimming with killing intent.
“Gou Zi, you and Mister Wu She are also going to Liaodong?” Dan Ying reined in his horse and asked Gou Zi curiously.
“I thought I was going alone, but it turns out my master also wants to go. Old people, you know, just accommodate them a bit. So I’m bringing him along.” Gou Zi proudly explained to Dan Ying. Just as he was about to continue, a hand reached out from inside the cart and smacked him hard on the back of the head. He had no choice but to lower his head and obediently drive the cart.
Dan Ying laughed heartily, lightly kicked the horse’s belly, and galloped off toward the military camp in a flash. Just as Gou Zi was about to complain about his master, he heard his master say again: “Gou Zi, when we get to the military camp, master will also get you such a full set. How could this old man’s disciple be inferior to that dead ghost Ding Yanping’s disciple? In this great battle, let master properly test what you’ve learned these past two years and see if you’ve learned it all.”
Gou Zi happily replied “Alright!” and cheerfully urged the horse toward the main camp.
The naval camp could be described as bustling with traffic and excitement, without any trace of pre-battle tension. Newly arrived soldiers lined up under the shouting of squad officers and walked into their barracks. Merchants clasped their hands in greeting and exchanged pleasantries outside the military camp, talking while keeping the corners of their eyes on the camp gate. As soon as a cart bearing their own small flag emerged, they would immediately take their leave to go count their goods. The lamp oil produced inside the main camp was truly an excellent product—when lit, it was bright with little smoke, and most importantly, the price was cheap, only half the price of vegetable oil. Though it couldn’t compare to candles, which small household would light candles for no reason? Only wastrels would do that.
On ordinary days, families couldn’t even afford cooking oil, let alone keeping oil lamps burning constantly. But now it was wonderful—with kerosene, filling one bottle was enough for a household to use for a long time. Therefore, from the moment kerosene hit the market, it was immediately in short supply.
Lai Chuanfeng and Gou Feng stood on the watchtower looking down at the chaotic scene below, though one was beaming with joy while the other looked worried.
“Old Lai, we’re about to go into battle, but this military camp doesn’t have the slightest pre-battle atmosphere. I’m worried that continuing like this will be detrimental to morale. Hasn’t the Marquis perhaps lost sight of the big picture for small gains?” Gou Feng said worriedly to Lai Chuanfeng.
“Mad Dog, have you taken the wrong medicine or something? In my view, this is precisely a great move to stabilize morale. Those in the military camp aren’t new recruits—every damn one of them has fought so many battles they’re battle-hardened. Haven’t you noticed that several squad officers have more seniority than the two of us? How do you appease such people? By saying a few pretty words about serving country and people? Only strings of copper coins can make them risk their lives. The Marquis’s instruction yesterday was excellent—we’re no good at fighting, they’re no good at supporting families—that’s exactly right!”
“They say that when two armies clash, it tests the commander’s wisdom, but such occasions aren’t many. Most often it’s about having more people bully fewer people, elites defeat mediocrity. In all my years as a soldier, I’ve never been this wealthy. Including the Marquis’s personal guards, we have two thousand five hundred men and three hundred eight-ox crossbows. I hear the warships have even more eight-ox crossbows. I don’t understand when eight-ox crossbows became so cheap. Previously, the entire Left Militant Guard only had one hundred. The Marquis has put wheels on the eight-ox crossbows—when drawing the string, you just turn that wheel. What used to require four men to draw, yesterday I drew with one hand alone.”
“Never mind the eight-ox crossbows, we also have a thousand strong crossbows. Where did the Marquis get them from? All brand new, the tallow on them hasn’t even been wiped off, still sealed with oiled paper. They’ll be distributed tomorrow. Won’t that mean one strong crossbow per person?”
“The Marquis has no intention of close combat at all. Use eight-ox crossbows at long range, strong crossbows at medium range, and we still have countless fire bottles. With such equipment, even if I were in hell I could kill my way through three times over. A siege of one hundred thousand men—I could tear through it with a wave of my hand.”
“What you say makes sense, but where would all those arrows come from? Longbows aren’t easy to use, but they’re accurate. The Goguryeo people all use them. Once we run short of arrows, it’ll be a great disaster.”
“Mad Dog, have you gone stupid or something? We’re not a land army now, we’re a naval force. We don’t need men to carry or horses to transport supplies and provisions—we have warships. How much supplies can’t we transport? Look at those merchants—they’re delivering arrow shafts to the main camp. The Ministry of Works forbids civilians from making arrows, but they didn’t say they couldn’t whittle wooden sticks, right? We’ve reduced our arrows and use crossbows the most, so we just need to attach iron arrowheads to these wooden sticks. When the time comes, we won’t need accuracy—we just need to blanket cover area by area. Mad Dog, don’t overthink it. Being able to kill enemies following the Marquis is a soldier’s good fortune.”
Gou Feng also nodded with satisfaction. Both were fierce generals by background. With such equipment, even if surrounded by others, as long as it wasn’t a death trap, the more people who came, the more would simply die.
“How many assault spikes have arrived now?” Yun Ye stood in the great hall constantly pointing at each item in the ledger and asking the quartermaster司马 in charge of supplies. He understood the importance of supplies better than anyone. This time, if problems could be solved with equipment, he didn’t plan to fill them with lives. In ten days he’d made eight trips to the Ministry of Works, threatening and intimidating, finally exchanging a large batch of assault spikes for kerosene. They should have been delivered by now.
“Commander, our assault spikes have long exceeded quota. We already have sixty thousand, which we can’t possibly use. Adding those we made ourselves, there are a full eighty thousand.” The quartermaster was already full of complaints. Assault spikes were things hammered into city walls for soldiers to grip while climbing them—he couldn’t understand why they needed so many.
“I don’t care. I’m not planning to attack cities. I’m going to use them against cavalry. I’ll set up a huge row in front of the battle formation and wait for the cavalry to come deliver themselves to death.”
The quartermaster couldn’t help but shudder. Assault spikes against cavalry? Thinking of the terrifying power of eight-ox crossbows, he also thought it was a good method, just the price wasn’t right. One assault spike cost a full three hundred coins, and even reducing the iron content, the cost wouldn’t be less than two hundred coins. Ten thousand strings of copper coins could only produce fifty thousand—and that was the official price. Never mind assault spikes, even ten thousand strings of copper coins could crush many people to death. This wasn’t warfare, this was profligacy.
Yun Ye was quite satisfied with his preparations. The powerful Great Tang army probably had never been so wealthy before. Elite warriors equipped with powerful armaments should be able to compensate for his deficiencies in command in this era of cold weapons, right?
We’ll just not covet glory, not advance rashly, proceed steadily and systematically, push forward like a bulldozer, and I don’t believe those Goguryeo riffraff can do anything to me. This was actually the result of Yun Ye’s deep deliberation. He didn’t understand military affairs, but his subordinate officers did. As long as he had a staff council and established a system, even if no brilliant strategies emerged, proceeding steadily shouldn’t be a problem, right? For land battles ask Lai Chuanfeng and the others, for naval battles ask Liu Renyuan and the others—he refused to believe he couldn’t break through Liaodong.