As an old fox in the court, how could Du Ruhui not understand the significance of this victorious battle for inspiring the people? Clearly over fifty thousand enemies had been killed, but under Old Du’s pen, it became slaying one hundred thousand in battle.
The corpses of Tubo people couldn’t be found, but quite a few corpses of Turkic nobles were found. Especially the corpse of the second prince of Xueyantuo—that was a treasure among treasures. Du Ruhui ordered people to cut off his head, carefully pickle it with lime, put it in a box, and have more than fifty messengers carry it eastward all the way. Everywhere they went, they loudly proclaimed the Tang army’s victory and the news of the Turkic allied forces’ defeat.
“Great Victory at Kucha!”
When Li Jing heard these words, his toothache was severe. Sucking in cold air, he asked his deputy general Su Dingfang: “Could you achieve such results while surrounded by an army of four hundred thousand?”
Su Dingfang shook his head and said with admiration: “Marquis Yun is truly a famous general of our Great Tang. While trapped in a siege by four hundred thousand troops, he could still slay one hundred thousand in battle. Such results can be called brilliantly illuminating both past and present.”
Li Jing waved his arm and swept all the seals and command arrows from the desk onto the ground, roaring: “Of course he can slay one hundred thousand in battle! He stayed inside the encirclement waiting for enemies to come deliver themselves to death. Look at his equipment, then look at your subordinates. Gunpowder, fire oil, eight-ox crossbows, new-style catapults, hot air balloons—he has everything. Powerful crossbows have been equipped down to individual soldiers.”
“The pack horses of the cavalry carry three sets of powerful crossbows on their backs. Other people’s cavalry mainly focus on slashing and killing, but his cavalry mainly focus on mounted archery. When two armies suddenly clash, the first round of dense arrow rain can eliminate twenty percent of the enemies. The second round of arrow rain can eliminate that many again. By the time it reaches close combat, he still has hand crossbows. You’re swinging your blade but haven’t gotten close yet, and you’re already killed by hand crossbows. The last bit of remaining troops—his large force charges over. How could there be any reason to lose the battle?”
“Bullshit famous general! Such a damned bastard under this commander’s command could at most serve as a quartermaster. If he needs to go into battle, this old man would at most allow him to lead one thousand men. If he leads any more people, it would be a disaster for the army.”
“Camel city, camel city! It’s just like the Great Emperor ship—they’re both the military’s shame. From now on, if the empire wants to produce famous generals again, I’m afraid it will be very difficult. Yun Ye has truly succeeded. He first destroyed our reverence for sages, and now he’s completely destroyed the military strategists who have been illustriously famous throughout the ages. He can finally mass-produce generals at the academy on a large scale.”
“From now on, generals only need to know how to maximize the effectiveness of weapons. They don’t need strategy, don’t need luck, only need powerful weapons. Mark my words, when this path is followed to the end, those strange people at the academy will always research weapons that can kill everyone at once, including killing ourselves!”
Su Dingfang didn’t understand why Li Jing would be so agitated. In his view, Yun Ye had not only repelled the enemy but also obtained a brilliant victory, reversing the empire’s unfavorable situation in the Western Regions. As colleagues, at this time they should be happy. How could he lose composure like this? Could it be jealousy? As soon as this thought arose, he forcibly snuffed it out. Thinking of his teacher this way was truly greatly disrespectful.
“Send troops to Black Stone Mountain!” Li Jing pointed his finger at Black Stone Mountain west of Luanshi City: “There we’ll go see Lu Dongzan, who was beaten half-crippled by Yun Ye, and ask him why he betrayed the Great Tang!”
Yun Ye’s victory in Li Jing’s eyes was a humiliation, an insult to the two words “military person.” However, Xu Jingzong didn’t see it that way. Upon hearing the battle report, Xu Jingzong’s eyes brimmed with tears as he devoutly thanked heaven. Ever since Yun Ye had been completely surrounded by others, he couldn’t sleep at night. Every day he pricked up his ears preparing to hear news of Yun Ye escaping back. He had even sent his subordinates more than a hundred li away to provide support. In his view, Yun Ye had really hit rock bottom of bad luck this time.
“Great Victory at Kucha!”
After the scouts Yun Ye sent out left, Xu Jingzong ordered his personal guards to shout out these four words whenever they had nothing to do. Each time he heard these words, he felt refreshed and invigorated.
Oh heavens! Old Xu here has a discerning eye for identifying talent! Others follow dragons, our family follows tigers. The merit of following dragons is too hot to handle. Following an old tiger that only knows how to sleep is too wonderful. As long as this tiger is fine, one’s own family will always rise through the ranks—such a great deal.
Xu Jingzong admired his initial decision to go teach at the academy to the point of prostrating himself in admiration. This trip back, this old man also has the great merit of firmly defending Luanshi City and restraining the Tubo people. Getting an earl title back shouldn’t be difficult, right? In this way, he could also be considered to have mixed into the noble group. Civil officials could be ennobled through military merit—just thinking about it makes one happy. Moreover, he still had Yushan Academy as an excellent fallback option, truly achieving the ability to advance and attack, retreat and defend. Having achieved such a level as an official, what more could one ask for?
In order not to let his beautiful dream shatter at the last moment, he once again ordered strengthening the defenses of Luanshi City. Only by preserving his life could he enjoy the fruits of these victories with peace of mind.
The various prefectures and counties of Longxi, alarmed three times daily, erupted in thunderous cheers upon hearing this news. The mounted scout messengers didn’t need to dismount themselves—they would immediately be carried down from their horses by the soldiers of the relay station, washed, given water, and massaged on the waist, just wanting to get more news of the Western Regions from the messengers’ mouths. Would those Turks and Tubo people come again or not?
“Come my ass! Now it’s our turn to chase them!” The messenger arrogantly spat out chicken bones from his mouth and continued: “You don’t know how that battle was fought—heaven and earth darkened, ghosts and spirits grieved! A few days ago, didn’t sand fall here too? That was the sand stirred up by us masters fighting.”
Seeing all the listeners sucking in cold air, the messenger felt smug and picked his teeth saying: “The Commander said we killed one hundred thousand. As for whether there were actually this many, there’s no way to count. They were all broken and fragmented corpses. In the end, we could only count ears, and the Commander only wanted left ears. Think about it, when fire oil bombs are fired over in waves, even the sand is burned to molten glass. How can you still expect a single ear to remain?”
“It’s unfair! Just me alone—I broke two blades. The third blade could only be used as a saw.”
Hearing the messenger’s words made people filled with solemn respect. Such a brave warrior could only be used by the Commander as a messenger to run errands. Who knows how many more tiger-and-wolf warriors in the army were currently preparing their weapons and waiting.
Watching as the relay horse was prepared, the messenger grabbed the half-eaten chicken, mounted the warhorse, and once again galloped madly toward the interior. Such great news absolutely must not be delayed.
The messengers galloped madly. Each time they passed through a prefecture or county, another small flag would be inserted on their backs, leaving behind cheering towns one after another. Just as they were about to enter Chang’an City, a group of messengers changed into battle robes. The bloodstains on them hadn’t even been wiped clean. From their bosoms they took out soot and randomly smeared it on their faces. This was what the Chief Administrator had personally instructed when passing through Luanshi City—the more disheveled they looked when entering Chang’an City, the better.
After drinking a mouthful of water to clear their throats, after everyone adjusted their voices to optimal condition, they exchanged glances and tacitly mounted their warhorses. While winning the great battle was certainly important, these superficial formalities must also be done beautifully. The Chief Administrator was absolutely right—the battle was fought by the Commander leading the brothers. They absolutely must not let there be half a bit of loss when it came to rewards.
“Great Victory at Kucha! Slaying one hundred thousand in battle!”
The suddenly erupting voices startled even the birds in the forest to burst out. More than fifty riders in neat formation charged majestically toward Chang’an City. In this lifetime, there weren’t many chances to ride horses through Chang’an City. If not now to show off, when else?
“Great Victory at Kucha! Slaying one hundred thousand in battle!”
The gate official was stunned. He shaded his eyes with his hand and looked westward. He saw more than fifty riders rushing over in rolling clouds of dust. He could vaguely see red plumes on their helmets—these were red-plumed urgent messengers. Where had achieved a great victory?
“Great Victory at Kucha, slaying one hundred thousand in battle! This time I heard clearly—it’s Kucha, the place where Commander Guo died in battle.” The gate official frantically pushed aside the pedestrians inside the city gate. Whether they were nobles or commoners, everyone had to stand aside.
The fierce Xi’an people hadn’t yet opened their loud throats to curse when they saw the red-plumed urgent messengers running over from the distance. They quickly and quietly closed their mouths. Being trampled to death by red-plumed urgent messengers would be for nothing.
They had thought these people brought news of trouble breaking out somewhere again. Recently, Chang’an people had already been numbed by such news. Everyone in the whole world didn’t like the Great Tang. Now they were joining forces to attack the Great Tang. It was said that the generals and soldiers were having a hard time defending outside. Even great generals had died in battle. This made people’s hearts feel empty.
“Great Victory at Kucha! Slaying one hundred thousand in battle!” The messengers roared out this throat-full with all their might, then galloped through the city gate tunnel. The horses’ speed didn’t slow down in any form.
With a “boom,” the city gate entrance erupted like a boiling pot. A fellow who looked like a student unhitched his carriage, mounted the bare-backed horse, and galloped toward the academy. From inside the carriage, a woman emerged, anxiously watching her departing husband.
The gate official excitedly beat the gongs and drums on the city wall, acting as if crazed.
Two fast horses had already rushed into the Yun family estate. Old Qian was seeing off Madam Hou at the front door when he suddenly saw two fast horses drill in from the archway entrance, completely disregarding the crowd at the market. Looking again, the two people were completely disheveled from head to toe. His heart skipped a beat, his vision darkened. He held onto the door frame, barely managing to stand, preparing to hear bad news. Unexpectedly, those two annoying fellows instead wailed from their throats: “Great Victory at Kucha, slaying one hundred thousand in battle!”
Old Qian suddenly felt his whole body filled with strength. After randomly kicking the two silly boys a couple of times, he instructed servants to drag them inside for bathing and changing clothes.
He himself rushed into the back courtyard with the wind beneath his feet and howled out: “Madam, Madam, Great Victory at Kucha! The Marquis slew one hundred thousand in battle!” By the end, his voice had become distorted.
Unexpectedly, no joyful sounds came from the house. Instead, Xinyue’s heart-wrenching wailing cry came out…
“Excellent, excellent! I didn’t misjudge the person. I never imagined he could create such a great surprise!” Li Er raised his eyebrows and looked at the map, used a red pen to draw a circle at Kucha’s location, then said to Zhangsun behind him who was studying the victory report: “Stop studying it. It’s certainly a great victory. At most there’s some discrepancy in the number of enemies killed. Everything else is definitely accurate word for word.”
“What I care about is that the Turks went west, and the Tubo people retreated to Black Stone Mountain. As long as these two points are true, even if Yun Ye says he killed one million people, I’ll pinch my nose and accept it.”
“Isn’t that so? Look at this sentence—you’ll know they certainly achieved a great victory without doubt. When has Minister Du ever had the guts to personally brave arrows and stones? He never did this even beneath Luoyang City.”
Li Er laughed heartily and said: “This is Keming telling me how delighted his mood is right now! The power of the camel city must certainly be fierce beyond compare!”