“Don’t be surprised, young general. How can cavalry that cannot sustain themselves be called cavalry? Think about it. They must fight on plateaus, fight in deserts, fight on grasslands, gallop across vast lands. Speed is their greatest love. At such times, what is their greatest obstacle?”
“Supply lines.”
“Correct, my young general. Noble warriors sweep across the grasslands like the wind. Beneath their horses’ hooves are flowers ready to be plucked. Not far away are the enemies they wish to conquer. At this moment, their bellies grow hungry. Looking back, they discover the people carrying grain are still a thousand li away. What can be done? Look at them.”
Tian Yuanyi pointed at the cavalry milking horses and said to Chen Shu and Guo Ping.
A cavalryman, seeing someone watching him from the platform, held up the mare’s milk he had just extracted and waved it at the three people on the platform. Then he added a bit of flour to the mare’s milk, stirred it, and drank it all in one gulp.
As Tian Yuanyi walked, he explained the cavalry’s self-sufficiency to the two young men: “Each of them has two mares. Do you know that one horse can be milked for three to four jin per day? The milk from two horses, when made into simple cheese, can satisfy most of their needs. What’s more, on their saddles they also have very dry butter-fried flour. This fried flour also contains tea leaf powder. So eating continuously for five months, though nauseating, causes not the slightest harm to their bodies.”
“The warhorses provide them with food and water, while what the warhorses need is merely the grass everywhere, or perhaps a bit of bean fodder.” As he spoke, he plucked two cucumbers from a basket nearby and handed them to the two already dumbfounded young men.
Because they saw many soldiers milking camels, and other soldiers collecting sun-dried milk solids and placing them into large wooden crates. The edges of the large wooden grids were hung with baskets, each basket luxuriantly filled with growing vegetables.
“Even if food can be resolved, what about weapons? Gunpowder is used up very quickly. When defending the city, if we had always had sufficient weapons, the Anxi Army could never have been completely annihilated.” Guo Ping looked somewhat angrily at everything before him. This camel fortress was far too luxurious—more like a garden than a military fortress.
“We have weapons workshops. Gunpowder is normally stored according to raw materials. When wartime comes, it’s manufactured as needed. As long as our raw materials are sufficient, we never lack gunpowder.”
“Why didn’t the Anxi Army have this?” Chen Shu and Guo Ping suddenly roared.
Tian Yuanyi spread his hands and said: “There’s no help for it. Commander Guo was an ordinary marquis. His status was insufficient to allow the Anxi Army to possess gunpowder workshops. You also know that gunpowder manufacturing has always been the empire’s highest secret. I cannot take you to see it. It’s best we don’t provoke the Five Li Commandant. You are warriors of a hundred battles. The commander, for Commander Guo’s sake, permitted me to take you to tour these secret sections. When you go out, don’t speak carelessly. Just know it yourselves, lest the Waterworks Bureau has nothing to do and goes looking for trouble with you.”
“Did Commander Yun deliberately place himself in a dangerous situation just to attract all the enemies over, then bit by bit use the camel fortress as a great millstone to grind them all into mincemeat?” Guo Ping seemed to understand something.
Tian Yuanyi said with a smile: “Every person’s eating, drinking, and relieving themselves on this camel fortress falls under this old man’s jurisdiction. Therefore, this old man knows clearly just how great this fortress’s capabilities are. Right now, we’re at Wild Horse Beach. Everywhere here are broken stones, yet everywhere is also grass. Broken stones are a natural barrier for warhorses, but for camels, such terrain is the best smooth road.”
“This old man doesn’t understand military affairs—that’s the military commandant’s business. This old man’s duty today is to let you eat your two eggs and bowl of camel milk with peace of mind. Drink more, and your bodies will recover, and you can take up weapons again to kill enemies.”
Returning to the front of their wooden house, Chen Shu took a bite of cucumber and said to Guo Ping: “Still can’t tell? They did it deliberately—deliberately stuffed themselves into the wolf’s mouth to summon all the wolf packs of the Western Regions over here. This way, it’s equivalent to blocking all enemies here, waiting for the great army from within the pass to come and trample all these wolf packs to death. Then the Western Regions war will be over.”
“I understand. I just feel my father and the others died too unjustly. Clearly, as long as they retreated backward, they could have slaughtered in all directions under the camel fortress’s protection. My father chose to defend to the death to buy time for the other armies. How could the old man have imagined that his persistence had no great meaning? Father, your death was so unjust!”
Before his words fell, his face received a heavy slap. Du Ruhui looked down at the wailing Guo Ping and said: “Who says your father’s death had no meaning whatsoever? Who told you your father died in vain?”
“Three months ago, the camel fortress could only travel short distances. It would overturn at every turn. Nothing was prepared. During these three months without warfare, the camel fortress underwent countless modifications to achieve today’s glory. Rather than saying this camel fortress was constructed by Marquis Yun and the others, it’s better to say your father and twenty thousand soldiers made the camel fortress complete. The reason Marquis Yun didn’t immediately leave Qiuci but chose the battlefield here was precisely to console your father’s heroic spirit in heaven. Dare to say such unconscionable words again, and beware this old man beats you to death.”
After Du Ruhui left, only then did Chen Shu dare to help up Guo Ping, whose mouth was bleeding. The two sat side by side on the platform, watching the busy soldiers, suddenly feeling this camel fortress and themselves had become close.
Yun Ye unhurriedly confronted the Tubo people and the Turkic coalition forces. But at the court, things had already boiled over. After the eight-hundred-li express red-plumed urgent courier delivered the news of Guo Xiaoke’s complete army annihilation to Chang’an, news immediately spread that Yun Ye’s great army had also been trapped to death by the Turkic and Tubo people at Wild Horse Beach. Over four hundred thousand troops besieging forty thousand people—the situation was even worse than Guo Xiaoke’s circumstances had been.
The realm was shocked! Since Li Er ascended the throne, never had such a high-ranking general died in battle, nor had entire established military units been completely annihilated by the enemy. Guo Xiaoke’s death was the first time the Great Tang’s domestic populace felt the cruelty of warfare.
Now, to block the Turkic and Tubo people outside Yumen Pass, Yun Ye’s great army had once again fallen into heavy encirclement. This news hung over everyone’s heads like dark clouds.
“What is the camel fortress’s actual condition? The matter of Du Ruhui being in Yun Ye’s army must be sealed—it must not be leaked!” Li Er paced back and forth anxiously in the great hall of Wanmin Palace. July in Chang’an had a scorching sun like fire, but Li Er himself felt not the slightest heat. His entire heart seemed frozen into an ice lump by the Western Regions battle reports.
It was all that military order’s fault—rejecting powerful enemies outside the nation’s gates. This order, which had never been written into any military regulations, was being resolutely executed by all Great Tang generals. Guo Xiaoke died in battle at Qiuci City for this order. Of his twenty thousand subordinates, only two survived. Yun Ye willingly fell into heavy encirclement for this order. Zhang Jian was enduring frenzied attacks from the two nations of Silla and Baekje for this order. Qi Bi defended Chaoyang Ridge to the death for this order—both his sons died in battle, yet he did not retreat a single step. As for the Lingnan Naval Fleet, they had long ago crossed the straits, surging mightily toward the Caliphate seas, preparing the cruelest retaliation.
Having so many generals who steadfastly obeyed his orders, Li Er felt immensely proud one moment, then felt immense bitter sadness the next. For a general, having no choice was the most terrifying thing. Guo Xiaoke had already fallen. Yun Ye’s plainly written memorial lay spread on the dragon desk. Every time Li Er looked at it, tears flowed. The world’s most moving language was nothing more than truth itself.
“When this subject saw Guo Xiaoke, only two or three incompletely burned corpse fragments remained. The rest of the cremated bone ash had already been blown away by the wind. The most tragic was Zhang Tingyue. Asking the fortunately surviving Captain Chen Shu, he said Zhang Tingyue, his entire body aflame, still wielded his Mo sword in fierce battle without rest. After the battle ended, this subject personally climbed the city wall and saw only that Zhang Tingyue had become charcoal. Only the military tally and seal in his mouth remained. When this subject extracted them from his mouth, they still retained warmth. Han Huang’s body bore countless arrows. When soldiers cleaned him for placement in the coffin, the arrowheads gouged from his body filled half a bushel…”
Zhangsun softly read Yun Ye’s memorial. Reading to this point, she was already sobbing uncontrollably.
“The enemy bandits are fierce and savage. When attacking the city, they feared death not at all. Beneath Qiuci City, corpses accumulated like mountains, nearly level with the city walls. The Turkic people abandoned their corpses without regard, appearing crazed. Such fierce bandits—this humble subject absolutely dares not allow them to drive straight into our Great Tang territory. I must pledge to block them outside the nation’s gates to the death. Thus, this subject, though dying, will have no regrets!”
Li Er continued reading where Zhangsun left off, then closed the memorial and said to Zhangsun: “None of my generals are greedy for life and afraid of death. This is the Great Tang people’s fortune and also my greatest fortune. Though the whole world attacks Tang, within our Great Tang realm songs and dances still flourish in peace. The common people live and work in peace and contentment. This was all fought for with their lives by these brave soldiers.”
“Attendants! Transmit my edict. Order the Ministry of Rites and the Court of State Ceremonial to jointly formulate memorial rites. Three days hence, I shall personally conduct distant memorial rites at Longshou Plain for the fallen battle souls. From this moment, I shall cease eating for three days to demonstrate shared suffering.”
The edicts were not only Li Er’s. The Empress’s decree was also issued at the same time, preparing to bathe, purify herself, and cease eating for three days to jointly memorialize the heroic spirits with the Emperor.
After this edict and decree were issued, immediately following came the Crown Prince’s teaching order, openly published throughout the realm.
“The Emperor’s family of three is preparing not to eat for three days. Why aren’t you eating either?” Xiao Wu took two bites of a chicken leg before asking Di Renjie, who was still in a daze.
“You’re already with child. Eat more. I haven’t had any appetite these past days.” Di Renjie pushed his plate toward Xiao Wu and forced out an ugly smile.
Xiao Wu smiled charmingly, put down the chicken leg, cleaned her hands, and gently caressed her already somewhat protruding belly, saying to Di Renjie: “No matter how things change, one point absolutely cannot change in the slightest.”
Di Renjie shook his head dully and said: “This time Master has absolutely no tricks to play. All that can be done now is to endure the joint attack of the Turkic and Tubo people, drag out the time, and wait for Commander Li and the others to lead the great army to the rescue.”
Xiao Wu took another chicken leg and placed it on Di Renjie’s plate, saying: “Master would never walk into a deadly trap. No matter how sufficient the reason, Master would never seek death…”