Du Ruhui’s words made Yun Ye think all night. The old fellow still saw things carefully. His own life these years had been too smooth, always thinking Li Er would have bottomless tolerance for him, not knowing that everyone in this world had a bottom line, especially the Emperor, whose bottom line was very likely the line between life and death. Perhaps his own loyalty was his greatest life-preserving talisman. This foundation absolutely must not be damaged, nor could it afford to be damaged.
After getting up in the morning, while eating with Du Ruhui, Liu Fang, and Wu She, he respectfully saluted Du Ruhui, then the four sat down to eat. Rimu personally served soup and water.
There wasn’t anything good to eat in the morning. In the Western Region, once heavy snow fell, not half a bit of green could be seen. Yun Ye didn’t allow greenhouses on the camel city, because it would be impossible to supply the entire army, so there wasn’t much meaning to it.
Mutton soup with flatbread was breakfast. Today they specially cooked a bowl of millet porridge for Du Ruhui. Since entering the Western Region, this thing had completely disappeared. Even this bit of millet was sent by the Yun Family’s steward in Suiye City to Rimu to nourish her body.
After Du Ruhui finished drinking the rice porridge, he glanced at Yun Ye, sighed, and said: “You truly are quick to follow good advice. This old man thought that being successful at a young age, you wouldn’t care about these trivial details. That you could reverse your mentality in one night is truly rare. This old man has also said similar words to Du He. Do you know how he answered?”
“He said young people should naturally have the arrogance of youth, and even used Huo Qubing as an analogy. Du He is just a wastrel young master. He doesn’t have achievements comparable to Huo Qubing like yours, nor does he have your clever mind. In the future, he’ll inevitably face great disaster. Yun Ye, if you feel you owe this old man something, give this blessing to Du He. This old man is in his twilight years and can’t use it. There’s no need to use things for urging women’s milk production to express your sentiment. This old man is quite fine drinking mutton soup and eating flatbread.”
Yun Ye chewed his flatbread and nodded, indicating he understood. As the family head of the Du Family, Du Ruhui generally wouldn’t specially enlighten another family’s head, but would only silently stand beside and observe. Not going forward to add fuel to the flames was already considered deep friendship between two families. If it were Yun Ye himself, it would be the same. This was also the rule among the meritorious nobles—seemingly peaceful coexistence, but actually with swords drawn and bows bent.
The sunlight, blown ice-cold by the frigid wind, coldly shone on his body. Looking at last night’s battlefield, Yun Ye increasingly felt cold in his heart. What kind of ice-sealed hell was this?
Everywhere were charred corpses imprisoned in solid ice. Occasionally a few severed limbs abruptly protruded from the ice surface, like claws extended by vengeful ghosts demanding lives. Outside was crystalline ice, crystal clear and transparent. The morning frost decorated it extremely beautifully. Those dead bodies swaying in ice coffins, if they wanted to see daylight again, would need to wait until next year when spring returned and flowers bloomed.
Cannot be careless! Such a voice kept reminding Yun Ye in his mind, so after watching the army pack their belongings and prepare to depart, he ordered Cheng Chumo to advance first, with the camel city forming a single-file serpent formation behind to guard the rear.
After traveling less than twenty li, melodious chanting sounds came on the wind. Yusuf was summoning the souls of his subordinates.
After forty li, they completely stopped marching. Yun Ye planned to take eighty days to complete three thousand li. No matter what, having his army swagger through another country’s territory as if no one else existed was always something worth writing about extensively.
This was a martial power demonstration parade. This was a lion leisurely wading through hyena territory. You could only whimper quietly, you couldn’t roar loudly. The consequence of roaring was being torn to pieces.
For the Great Tang, Great Bolu was a chicken. Shache perhaps was a rabbit? Tokharistan could barely be considered a hyena. So the only one daring to fiercely pounce forward to attack the camel city was the Arab cheetah.
This time, three thousand Arab cavalry fiercely chose the middle section of the serpent formation, planning to break through the camel city from the middle in one vigorous effort, then have large numbers of cavalry divide and surround the camel city before annihilating it.
Very clearly, Yusuf hadn’t read the “Six Army Mirror” written by Li Jing and didn’t understand the characteristic of the single-file serpent formation—that is, strike the head and the tail arrives, strike the tail and the head arrives, strike the middle abdomen and both head and tail arrive. When the three thousand cavalry fought with the middle abdomen of the camel city, the Arabs watched wide-eyed as the camel city unknowingly became a huge ring. No matter how many troops they sent to prevent the camel city from encircling them, it was all to no avail. Cheng Chumo, Guo Ping, and Chen Shu led cavalry charging along the camel city, hiding within the eight-ox crossbow range of the camel city. Borrowing their powerful long-range attacks, they killed and beheaded the Arabs who came to rescue within the extreme range of five hundred paces.
When the two ends of the camel city met, the sounds of slaughter within the circle enclosed by the camel city gradually disappeared. Three thousand people were swallowed clean by this great serpent in the time of brewing a cup of tea.
The well-fed great serpent once again formed into a square formation. Under the guidance of the horn, it slowly moved eastward. No one could stop Yun Ye’s desire to go home.
Walking at the very back was Cheng Chumo. He had somehow exchanged for a long horse lance. Only after all his subordinates had completely withdrawn did he shake his horse’s reins and retreat with the main force.
The time wasn’t right. The enemy army wasn’t yet exhausted, nor had they lost their courage. It wasn’t yet time for him to launch a major attack. At this time, Cheng Chumo was full of confidence in his subordinates. Whether they were Guanzhong sons or those auxiliary troops, he believed that after witnessing the camel city’s might, they already firmly believed in the victory they were about to achieve.
Fighting to this point, with favorable wind and smooth water, even a rabbit would dare chase a wolf now. These days it was all the camel city establishing authority. It hadn’t yet been the cavalry’s turn to come out for a death battle.
Thinking of his sworn brother’s personality, Cheng Chumo couldn’t help but want to slap his thigh. Saying things like strategic objectives had already been achieved, there was no need to lose subordinates in these meaningless battles, not hoping that in the future someone would recite poetry saying things like “pitiful something something riverbank bones, still are boudoir dream people” and such sour words.
What did he come over ten thousand li here for if not to fight? What did the warriors come here for? He heard that Xuanzang’s journey to obtain Western scriptures was only about this distance.
Now it was good. His sworn brother’s mind seemed to have opened up. One phrase “cannot be careless” invigorated people’s spirits. Indeed, since they could already walk sideways here, why be careless with the enemy?
Although Cheng Chumo was brave, he wasn’t just a reckless fellow. As a general, he was still a qualified general who could distinguish clearly what he should do at what time.
Fan Hongyi strictly observed the commander’s orders, continuously patrolling in the army. Behind him followed more than ten military law officers. Wherever they went, countless officers would immediately check their equipment and attire. Centurions quietly passed on orders, telling their slovenly subordinates to pay attention, absolutely not to be caught by military law officers. These days the commander was organizing military discipline—they couldn’t make mistakes.
Fan Hongyi was very satisfied with his deterrent power. Although he didn’t know why the commander would suddenly begin organizing military discipline, in his view, the one most needing military discipline organized was the commander himself. Having even birthed a daughter in the army, how could he demand anything from others?
Thinking of that full moon wine feast, Fan Hongyi didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. This was the first time in his life drinking full moon wine in the army. The Yun Family were all particular people. Rituals like the baby girl’s third-day washing couldn’t be lacking by half a bit. Guests still needed to be selected. He heard that Lady Rimu flipped through the officers’ roster for three days before deciding on the guest list.
No ugly ones, no ones with heavy killing aura, no ones who couldn’t speak—this was humiliating to subordinates. When he was about to point out this wasn’t right in front of the commander, Old Yuan quietly tugged at him once, indicating he shouldn’t be too serious. Instead, he raised his wine cup to congratulate the Yun Family’s young lady on blessings, longevity, health, and peace, and even took out two exquisite silver vessels from his bosom and sent them over, smiling and saying they were his and Fan’s congratulatory gifts.
“Old Fan, the commander is self-polluting. How can you not see this? The achievements we established this time are too great, so great they’re somewhat excessive. After victory, we should consider our retreat. Only if the commander suffers impeachment and His Majesty magnanimously forgives the commander’s actions can we have good days, and the commander can smoothly be promoted in rank.”
“Our commander is such a wise person. Lady Rimu also isn’t a woman who looks down on people with dog eyes. When Lady Rimu danced and sang by the fire for everyone, how could she put on airs of a noble lady? On the daughter’s joyous day, how could she suddenly disdain everyone? It doesn’t make sense.”
Hearing Old Yuan’s words, Fan Hongyi finally understood. He immediately returned to his tent and respectfully recorded this violation of military discipline by Yun Ye, and brought it to the commander for review.
“Don’t show personal favoritism in the future!” This was the evaluation the commander gave while holding his daughter. At this time, fierce battle still raged outside the tent…
Liu Fang held a telescope continuously observing Yusuf’s army. After forty continuous days of uninterrupted pursuit, the Arab army formations had clearly already begun to scatter. Large masses of troops dragged along behind. The front army and rear troops had already been pulled apart by a gap of a full fifty li.
It was ready. The Arabs were already exhausted. It was time for Cheng Chumo to penetrate to the enemy’s rear. As long as he led forty thousand cavalry to block these one hundred thousand Arabs for one two-hour period, the camel city would grind these one hundred thousand people into meat paste along this valley.
Cheng Chumo finally heard the long-awaited horn sound. Hearing the horn sound proved the army had already achieved the objective of dragging the fat Arabs thin and the thin Arabs to collapse. These days he had led his subordinates stationed on the camel city to rest and store up energy, waiting for precisely this moment.
Again a waning moon. The cold clear moonlight sprinkled on dark black iron armor, reflecting ghostly cold light. Horse hooves wrapped in cotton cloth treaded on gravel covered with frost flowers. His mood was agitated to the extreme—finally there was a proper battle to fight.
Yun Ye anxiously paced back and forth on the camel city. He was very worried about his forty thousand roaming cavalry. Yun Ye didn’t care very much about the fate of the twenty thousand auxiliary troops. They had to experience a great battle to demonstrate their loyalty. Casualties were actually another form of expressing a certificate of allegiance. In comparison, the twenty thousand Guanzhong sons led by Cheng Chumo were the reason causing Yun Ye’s anxiety.
“Don’t be anxious. They only left one two-hour period ago. According to distance calculations, they need to walk at least three two-hour periods, then rest and reorganize for another two-hour period before they can enter battle. Since it’s warfare, casualties are inevitable.”
Du Ruhui, draped in fur robes, raised his head to look at the moon and quietly comforted Yun Ye, like a poet.