Yun Ye never planned to enter Xingxing Gorge, nor did he even prepare to seize Xingxing Gorge. He was merely making a show of force, buying Zhou Chong a bit of time to travel.
Others used small forces to provide cover for large forces. Who could have imagined that Yun Ye’s aggressive invasion was just an act? Among commanders throughout the world, there was no one who could spare the mental energy to think about other matters under Yun Ye’s assault. Even if they knew Yun Ye’s intentions, they wouldn’t dare be distracted, because his attacks were simply too unreasonable and too fierce.
The crossbow arrows on the Camel City didn’t spare any suspicious place. The ambushes that Gar Tongtsen had prepared in advance for Li Jing immediately revealed their true form under the indiscriminate strikes of gunpowder crossbows.
Those things that looked like stones were actually made of oxhide, filled with hidden soldiers inside. The original purpose was to catch the enemy off guard. Now, under the bombardment of gunpowder crossbows, countless Tubo people fled in panic from the oxhide tents hidden among the chaotic rocks. Before they could run far, they were shot down by crossbow arrows as dense as flying locusts, then hooked and dragged away by cavalry protecting the Camel City. On the Camel City’s path of advance, corpses and such things were generally not permitted.
The road grew narrower and narrower. After penetrating five li into Xingxing Gorge, the Camel City stopped advancing. Shrill horn sounds rang out—a whole row of horn blowers were blowing their horns. The strip-shaped Camel City quickly transformed into a square fortress. The eight-ox crossbows in the middle of the fortress were without exception pushed to the very front. All the crossbow arrows were raised high, and the catapults had also made their preparations.
Gar Tongtsen didn’t believe Yun Ye could accomplish anything. His own army had already retreated to two li away—that place still wasn’t somewhere the Camel City could enter. If Yun Ye wanted to completely occupy Xingxing Gorge, then he should fight a normal war with him, a genuine fight with real swords and spears, rather than relying on the威power of weapons to swagger about here.
The crossbow arrows flew up with a bang, soaring into the sky, almost obscuring the sunlight over the gorge. Just as they began to fall, the fire oil had already burst open, weaving into a huge fire net that fell down. At the same moment, the fire oil barrels suspended from the hot air balloons also dropped from the sky. The air was permeated with the thick smell of fire oil.
The fire net became fire masses, covering the narrow gorge. Oil vapor was carried by the cold wind and poured into the gorge. In an instant, even the air began to burn. Looking in all directions, everywhere black-red flames raged.
“Return to base!” Yun Ye issued the simplest command. This saturation strike would at least keep the flames burning in the gorge for three days. Everything combustible on the ground was burning, fully proving the maxim that where the Camel City passed, not a blade of grass would grow.
Gar Tongtsen waved his hand to fan away the black smoke before him. He was somewhat confused now. What Yun Ye was doing could only block his own army’s path of advance—it had little killing power against the Tubo forces. No matter how great the flames, if they couldn’t burn people, wasn’t this futile effort?
Soon he understood why Yun Ye had done this. When he watched with his own eyes as his soldiers covered their throats and gasped with difficulty, only then did he understand one principle—the byproduct of these flames, namely the thick smoke, was poisonous.
“Despicable! Shameless!” Before blocking his mouth and nose with wet cloth soaked in water, Gar Tongtsen viciously cursed Yun Ye twice. It seemed the gorge couldn’t be stayed in anymore. He had no choice but to order a retreat. The great fire had already become a prairie blaze, carried over by the wind. If they didn’t leave now, they might very well lose the entire army here.
Stratagems were always continuous—a single stratagem wasn’t called a stratagem. Cheng Chumo, leading cavalry, had already circled around Xingxing Gorge from the distant frozen-solid meadows and charged toward Gar Tongtsen’s army. Seeing that Gar Tongtsen’s military势might was at its peak and his battle formation was in no disorder whatsoever, he terminated his plan to charge the formation and slowly withdrew. Gar Tongtsen also had no intention of fighting. He merely stationed his army at the exit of Xingxing Gorge and established a solid encampment, backing against Blackstone Mountain with plans to hold fast.
This confrontation continued for seven days. Cheng Chumo couldn’t find any opportunity to exploit and had to return by the same route. At this time, the great fire in Xingxing Gorge had just been extinguished. A reddish-brown gorge had become pitch black—truly achieving the state where not a blade of grass grew.
Gar Tongtsen dispatched scouts to enter the gorge. They advanced less than two li before more than half were killed or wounded by Tang army archers and crossbowmen. Ahead stood a pass, and countless Tang soldiers wearing pig-snout masks were busily working tensely. They were preparing to establish a forward attack position here.
These were Li Jing’s troops. Seizing every opportunity was originally Li Jing’s forte. Being able to use every advantage to its fullest extent—Li Jing wouldn’t care who had driven Gar Tongtsen out of Xingxing Gorge. In his eyes, there was only victory or defeat.
Yun Ye continued leading his army toward Yumen Pass. Missing the deadline was also a serious crime. In the past, Han General Li Guang, because he failed to arrive in time for a great battle, unable to bear the torment and humiliation of petty officials, had committed suicide by falling on his sword.
Now Yun Ye faced the same problem, but his mentality was relatively stable. He absolutely wouldn’t do something like commit suicide. Su Dingfang was at Yumen Pass stretching out his neck waiting for him—he would help him hold off the imperial messenger. Besides, right now there weren’t many imperial messengers willing to wander about the Gobi Desert for no reason. The last one had already died at Luanshi City. Especially having heard that the current Grand General Yun Ye’s temper was extraordinarily violent—he had reached the point of killing people on sight. When he went to Luanshi City and couldn’t find anyone to kill, he ran off to kill over two thousand Tubo people. It was said he also set a towering fire at Xingxing Gorge, burning the stones there black. Such a person couldn’t be provoked.
“His Majesty has commanded that Marquis Lantian Yun Ye immediately return to the capital without delay!”
Ma Zhou stood on the Camel City and read the Emperor’s command to Yun Ye.
“That’s it?” Yun Ye had prepared to listen to a long speech. He hadn’t expected just this one sentence, and moreover it was a command rather than an edict. What was just given to Du Ruhui was an edict—looking at the handwriting on it, it was even personally written by the Emperor himself. That awkward flying white calligraphy of his—apart from Princess Jinyang who could imitate it, no one else could do it. How did it become just a command when it came to him? Most outrageous of all was that Ma Zhou actually pulled out an order arrow from his bosom to give him. What was this about?
Last time at Li Jing’s camp it was like this, and this time at his own camp it was still like this? Not a single extra word, just dismissed with such a brief sentence?
“You’re a Grand General—you don’t receive edicts, you receive order arrows. This old man’s edict was full of kind words, but it’s not necessarily better than your military order. Since you’ve been given an order arrow, it means you’re still a Grand General. No one has designs on your military position. His Majesty is reassuring you, wanting you not to be too impatient. He also worries you’ll dawdle along the road back to the capital, so he specifically gave you an order arrow rather than an edict. Don’t you understand that after receiving an edict, subjects have a month’s leave? A military order probably doesn’t have such a good deal. Hurry to the capital. His Majesty has probably already grown impatient waiting.”
Du Ruhui seemed genuinely a bit jealous.
“Last time Li Jing said the same thing. Could it be that the fewer words His Majesty uses, the more重用favor one receives? What kind of logic is this? Ma Zhou, you tell me—what’s really going on?”
Before Ma Zhou, Yun Ye had no intention whatsoever of being polite.
“Grand General, Minister Du is correct. His Majesty plans to bestow rewards on meritorious officials from all fronts at this year’s New Year ceremony. Not only must you arrive in Chang’an before New Year’s Day, even Commander Zhang and Commander Niu in Liaodong must rush back to the capital. The people replacing them are already on their way.”
“What about Greater Feichuan? How is it that no one is willing to go to Greater Feichuan? Why isn’t Grand General Li Jing returning to the capital with me?”
Ma Zhou gave a bitter smile. “General Cheng absolutely refuses to come down from the plateau. He says something about waiting until he’s killed Songtsen Gampo, then naturally he’ll come down. Since General Cheng remains at Greater Feichuan, Grand General Li Jing needs to pin down Gar Tongtsen to prevent him from joining forces with Songtsen Gampo. Otherwise General Cheng will be in danger at Greater Feichuan. So apart from those two, everyone else must return to Chang’an. The three generals on the grasslands are no exception. The New Year ceremony will presumably be extremely grand. The several Grand Generals cannot not be in Chang’an.”
Knowing full well that Ma Zhou was spouting nonsense, Yun Ye still believed his ghost stories. He and these others had commanded troops abroad for too long. This way, they would form their own factions in the military. Li Er, who was desperately trying to turn Grand General into merely a military command标symbol, how could he allow these people to control the same army for extended periods? In the future, Grand Generals leading armies would command different troops—this was already basically a foregone conclusion.
Yun Ye made a trip down from the Camel City to Yumen Pass to hand over the transit documents. When he returned, he discovered that someone wouldn’t permit him to board the Camel City again. They only said to request that the Grand General immediately depart for Chang’an.
After looking carefully three times, he discovered he didn’t recognize this person. Looking more carefully again, he discovered this was a castrated eunuch. Lady Na Rimu, Xiao Miao, Liu Fang—they were all on the Camel City. His personal effects were also on the Camel City. How could he not be allowed up on the city?
“Are you fucking planning to seize my woman?” Yun Ye grabbed this eunuch by the throat and asked.
“His Majesty has commanded that Marquis Lantian immediately return to the capital!”
“Are you fucking planning to embezzle my spoils of war?”
“His Majesty has commanded that Marquis Lantian immediately return to the capital!”
Yun Ye had already knocked out three of this fellow’s teeth, yet he still said the same thing. However, this was the Camel City, his own territory. For him to not let him board the Camel City was a joke. The personal guards around were so angry they were ready to tear this fellow to pieces alive.
However, Yun Ye didn’t let them act. If he himself beat up this eunuch receiving the Camel City, there probably wouldn’t be any problem. But if someone else acted, regardless of whether they were right or wrong, Li Er’s general practice was to chop off heads first and ask about the circumstances afterward.
“I’ll give you the Camel City tomorrow. This commander must still obey His Majesty’s commands. Return to the capital immediately—that doesn’t mean without sleeping.”
In one night, the Camel City became unrecognizable. The military order only required handing over the Camel City to the eunuch—it said nothing about transferring the people along with it. These soldiers were ones he’d brought from Chang’an, so naturally they had to be brought back safely.
Tian Yuanyi didn’t leave. His official position had already been firmly bound together with the Camel City, so he watched the devastated Camel City with heartache like knife wounds.