Extremely beautiful. The earth was slowly sinking into darkness, with only the mountain peaks still covered in a sheet of golden yellow. The fiery clouds at the horizon were like angry waves rolling, and a red fire net illuminated the darkened earth, like a phoenix bathed in fire raising its neck to sing loudly.
As the fire net descended, it continuously burst forth with ghostly blue flames. This was the white phosphorus stored at the tail of the crossbow bolts burning. They would even separate from the crossbow bolts, slowly descending from the sky, draping a layer of brilliant blue clothing over the crimson fire phoenix.
The Arabs covered their heads with giant shields, wanting to use the shields to block this fire net. The entire army seemed to become a giant turtle in an instant. Apart from those injured Arab soldiers crying out helplessly, the remaining people had all burrowed into the turtle shell.
Yun Ye stood on tiptoe, trying to see through the gaps in the giant shields to observe the strike effect of this round of fire arrows. Liu Zhengwu, however, calmly issued the launch command once again. Just as the first fire net was about to fall on the Arabs’ heads, the second wave of crossbow bolts shrieked and flew into mid-air once more. Like Yun Ye, he had great confidence in his fire-setting skills. Two waves of fire arrows were sufficient to incinerate all objects on the river surface, especially devastating in their strike against people, because such dense fire oil crossbow bolt burning would exhaust all oxygen within the strike range, forming a terrifying oxygen-free zone…
The Arabs’ shields were still effective. The fire net falling on the shields burst forth with even more brilliant sparks. The liquid fire oil bombs completely exploded. The sticky grease attached to everything it could attach to and burned. The turtle became a fire turtle.
The slowly descending blue white phosphorus fire was swept up and down by the warm air currents, like countless wronged souls demanding lives. They drilled in through gaps in the air currents, some even drilling into the turtle shell.
When white phosphorus fire attached to steel swords and continued burning, the turtle formation finally collapsed. As long as they were human, they couldn’t resist the pain of white phosphorus fire drilling into flesh and burning. When one shield was thrown away, more white phosphorus fire followed the gaps and drilled into this iron turtle. When everyone threw away their shields wanting to flee, they discovered in despair that the second fire phoenix in the sky had already formed and was shrieking as it rushed down toward them without cover or protection…
Yun Ye rubbed his nose. Such battle results were originally within expectations. The only thing he worried about now was whether Yusuf would leave the battlefield because of this. His camel city wasn’t a very good pursuit weapon. Simply relying on Cheng Chumo’s cavalry for pursuit, he felt extremely uneconomical. Having already promised the warriors they’d go home for New Year, how could he break faith with people?
Liu Fang was already dumbstruck and couldn’t say a word. Seeing Yun Ye come up from below, he looked as if he’d seen a ghost. Pointing at him with croaking sounds, being able to shock such an old fox like this, Yun Ye ultimately felt somewhat proud. He concernedly grasped Liu Fang’s rough large hand and said: “You’ve been away for a bit long and don’t know that military equipment has undergone some changes. This is also understandable. Look, old sir, what comes next—should we attack or go to sleep? I’m already sleepy.”
Liu Fang angrily pulled his hand from Yun Ye’s grasp, pointed at Yun Ye, then pointed at the battlefield steaming with white mist, and squeezed out a sentence with difficulty: “Are you planning to cook these people and eat them?”
Yun Ye rubbed his nose. The smell here truly wasn’t very pleasant. Flames falling on ice would melt the ice, but the flames wouldn’t extinguish. They would only heat the melted ice water and then melt more solid ice. Now it wasn’t long since freezing time—the solid ice was only two chi thick. If another wave of fire arrows came, it would absolutely be able to burn through the ice layer here. Now unable to burn through it, the entire ice surface had become a huge pot of boiling water for cooking meat.
The hot air balloons on the camel city continuously transmitted enemy intelligence, saying countless people already stood on the opposite riverbank but hadn’t taken a single step forward. They all wanted to see what was actually happening on the battlefield. As for the battlefield itself, with water vapor steaming, nothing could be seen. Only a limited few dozen people who weren’t within the fire net’s coverage range were seen escaping back.
Under the confrontation of the two armies, everyone watched wide-eyed as the last wisp of flame extinguished. The battlefield was extremely quiet, with only occasional sounds of solid ice bursting coming from afar.
“Wind! Great wind! Wind! Great wind!” The Tang army camp suddenly burst out with the battle cry unique to Guanzhong people. Previously everyone had shouted “wild wind,” but now no one shouted it anymore. They specially reserved this special honor for the hero who would capture the enemy commander.
Speaking of being uninteresting, after shouting the slogan, everyone prepared to return to camp to sleep, because the Arabs on the opposite side had retreated thirty li backward. They estimated the Arabs wanted to think of another way to deal with the Tang army. Today’s scene was too far beyond their scope of understanding.
The Tang army didn’t pursue. Only Cheng Chumo’s cavalry went around the battlefield and crossed to the opposite bank from upstream of the great river, where they constructed fortifications overnight. The camel city wasn’t allowed to be exposed to the enemy’s front during non-combat times—this was also a regulation summarized by the staff officers.
Rather than saying the camel city was an army, it was better to say it was a huge machine. Appropriately preserving this machine’s mystique was very necessary.
“Good heavens, what kind of monster have you created?” After Liu Fang returned to the commander’s tent with Yun Ye, he couldn’t help but ask questions. He had originally thought there would be intense warfare. He hadn’t expected the entire war to end completely in just a single breath, ending so completely and decisively. Five thousand lives disappeared from the human world just like that.
“I hate endless warfare, so I thought about finishing all these battles early. After finishing, I’m preparing to go home and farm. My essence is that of a landlord. I’m naturally born to like digging for food in the land, so I’ll pass down this tradition.”
“These nations riding on horseback always think they’re more formidable than those who farm, so I’m not convinced. Then I’ll frighten them and subdue them all at once. I want them to call for their mothers to protect them in their dreams after seeing the Tang people’s way of warfare.”
“Precisely because I hate warfare, I throw myself into warfare so crazily. Master Liu, I know what your worry is. There’s completely no need to worry about the camel city. Any formidable weapon will only succeed temporarily and absolutely cannot occupy the peak for countless years.”
“Haven’t you discovered the camel city has a fatal flaw? That is slow movement. As a defensive weapon, it’s almost the strongest existence, but as an offensive weapon, it still has very many inadequacies. If the enemy is equipped with weapons from the camel city, the camel city will only become a target and will die very miserably.”
“Precisely because it has many shortcomings, I dare affirm that His Majesty is now definitely having people research day and night how to eliminate the camel city. Very possibly there’s already a draft plan, which is why he allows us to run rampant in the Western Region. Master Liu, you just focus on warfare. These matters of court struggles, you can leave to me. I will definitely grasp the proper measure and won’t overstep boundaries by even one step.”
Du Ruhui walked in from outside. The weather outside was too cold. He breathed on his hands and rubbed them a few times, then said to Yun Ye: “In the future, don’t kill people so gruesomely. Just now the soldiers planned to go look at the battlefield, preparing to clean up, but they came back vomiting one by one. They told this old man that battlefield didn’t need cleaning up.”
“The Arabs have retreated. What will you do? Cheng Chumo can’t stay on the opposite bank endlessly. That place is actually very dangerous.”
Liu Fang shook his head and said: “He won’t. Tomorrow we’ll break camp and leave, continuing our return home. Anyway, our objective has already been achieved. The Turks have broken through Vor City and are attacking westward all the way. There’s no possibility of turning back. So as Yun Ye said, the children should also go home for New Year.”
Du Ruhui poured himself a cup of hot tea, sipped it, and asked Yun Ye: “Are you truly certain Yusuf will pursue? If this old man were Yusuf and witnessed tonight’s battle situation with his own eyes, he wouldn’t clash with you head-on. If we retreat, perhaps it’s exactly what he wants.”
Liu Fang sneered: “He doesn’t dare retreat. He can only pursue us. No matter how many people die, he will tightly pursue us.”
Yun Ye smiled and explained to Du Ruhui: “You’re also an old hand who has weathered the official seas for many years. Don’t you understand the meaning of these two words ‘pursue’? Pursuing is merit. Not pursuing is admitting defeat. I heard the Caliph isn’t a benevolent monarch.”
Du Ruhui said impatiently: “This old man knows this point. The question is, do we need to perform this act with Yusuf? According to our strength, if we turn back and re-enter Arab territory, he’ll die without a burial place.”
Yun Ye glanced at Liu Fang and chuckled: “Of course, there’s no such cheap deal. He must send people over for us to kill, until we believe he no longer has the strength to invade the Western Region.”
Du Ruhui squinted his eyes looking at Yun Ye. In his small eyes, a brilliant light shone. At this moment, he didn’t show half a bit of senility. His stooped back also straightened bolt upright in this instant. Pointing at Yun Ye, he said loudly: “National law and discipline are above. How dare you engage in petty theft? How much benefit did Yusuf give you?”
Yun Ye laughed: “First temporarily cease your thunderous fury and let me finish speaking. Yusuf hasn’t given me the benefit yet. I’m waiting for the benefit. If he doesn’t give it this time, I’ll continue fighting until he does.”
Du Ruhui took a long breath and said: “Military and state affairs are as heavy as mountains. How can you be so frivolous? Since ancient times, arrogant soldiers are bound to fail. Aren’t there few famous generals who were destroyed by the two words ‘arrogance’? Marquis Yun, we don’t need any benefits. As long as we eliminate Yusuf’s army, we can have whatever we want. This vast land will be at our disposal for taking and seizing. We don’t need others to deliver it to our door. As long as we want it, we can just go take it. This matter absolutely must not be handled carelessly.”
“Won’t be careless, won’t be careless. We just wanted to change the way of fighting. This way is a bit more relaxed. Since you’re unwilling, we’ll just act according to the original plan.” Yun Ye helplessly replied to Du Ruhui.
Only then did Du Ruhui relax his tone and slowly say to Yun Ye: “This old man has been immersed in official circles for a lifetime. I haven’t learned anything else, but I learned one thing—try as much as possible to have little ambiguity with enemy troops. No matter for what reason, you cannot do this. Being ambiguous with the enemy will give the enemy an exploitable opportunity. This enemy doesn’t solely refer to foreign enemies—it equally applies to domestic ones.”
“We already have this war firmly in our grasp. Don’t take shortcuts—there’s no need. Although taking the long road takes more effort, it wins in being stable. This old man only seeks that we can ride horses into Chang’an with glory.”