Boom, boom, boom!
On the walls of Xunzhou City, dull drumbeats echoed through the sky, and ranks of armoured defenders carrying sharp weapons rushed towards the battlements.
The militia were well trained too, moving siege-defence equipment in an orderly, efficient manner.
Amid the drums announcing the enemy’s approach, from militia to soldiers, from soldiers to officers, every person displayed formidable discipline and experience. To the common people within the city, being protected by such a high-quality army was a blessing.
But for the defenders themselves, the bitterness behind it was not something that could be explained to outsiders.
How many trials of iron and blood had it taken to forge the seasoned competence and calm under such pressure?
As the drums thundered atop the walls, within the magistrate’s office, Yang Gong put on his official hat, straightened his robes, and looked towards Zhang Shen and Li Mubai in the hall.
“The elite troops we brought from Qingzhou have more or less been spent. The forces of the Yongzhou garrison have also suffered losses of seven or eight in ten. Now it is our turn to take the field in person.”
Yang Gong smiled.
“Jinyan, Mubai, we have known each other for half our lives, yet it seems we have never fought side by side on a battlefield.”
Zhang Shen gave a rough chuckle and said,
“Cloud Deer Academy has lain quiet for two hundred years. The world has long forgotten how formidable our Confucian school is.”
For generations, the scholars of Cloud Deer Academy had carried two wishes in their hearts:
First, that scholars of the Confucian system might one day return to court.
Second, that cultivators of the various systems across Jiuzhou might once again recall the fear of being put in their place by Confucianism.
In the Central Plains, before the Arcanist system had appeared, those who upheld the realm through dynasty after dynasty, those who formed the backbone of the Central Plains dynasties, were not crude martial brutes, but Confucians.
It was Confucianism that had suppressed the Warlocks and cowed the Buddhist sect.
In the Western Regions there was Buddhism, in the northeast there were Warlocks, in the Southern Marches there were Gu, in the northern frontier there were Yao and barbarians… all rubbish!
Only the Confucians of the Central Plains had looked down proudly upon all Jiuzhou.
Two hundred years ago, the Lesser Sage Cheng had flattered the ruler and founded the Imperial Academy, squeezing Cloud Deer Academy, and indeed the entire Confucian system, out of court.
In this, the Jianzheng had also helped things along behind the scenes.
Because of that, Confucianism had lain dormant for two hundred years. Third rank experts had become as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns, while second rank and first rank had vanished entirely ever since.
The cultivators of Jiuzhou today had long forgotten the splendour of Confucianism at its peak.
Li Mubai was much more practical.
“But those coming are all elite troops of the Yunzhou army. Every one we kill counts. We must grind all the Yunzhou elite down here at Xunzhou.
“The dean has already gained the female Emperor’s approval and entered court. Once this battle is over, the military merit Jinyan and I have earned should be enough to make us kings and ministers. If we can reach beyond-mortal in the future, we will go and settle accounts with that old bastard dean.
“He stole several of our poems.”
No, he stole mine… Yang Gong and Zhang Shen both retorted in their hearts at the same time.
The three great scholars looked at each other and smiled, then said in unison:
“The place where we stand is not the hall, but the battlements of Xunzhou.”
Laws follow commandments!
Three streams of azure light rose up, enveloped their figures, and carried them out of the hall.
…
Boom boom boom!
On the walls, the cannons roared. One shell after another burst from the barrels and fell into the densely packed besieging army.
Every shell exploded into a swelling ball of fire, blasting up great sprays of earth and stone, together with mangled limbs and broken bodies.
After suffering a certain amount of casualties, the Yunzhou rebels successfully pushed their cannons and carriage-mounted ballistae into position, bringing the city walls within range.
Then came the artillery duel between the two armies, a contest of firepower.
Under cover of their own bombardment, the dense masses of enemy troops surged to the foot of the walls in an instant, then began to swarm up them like ants.
The first wave assigned to storm the city were the Vanguard Battalion and the Siege Battalion. Each of the two camps had nine smaller divisions, for a total of three thousand six hundred men, made up of men of the jianghu and new recruits, led by Transforming Force martial artists or Bronze Skin and Iron Bones fighters.
The purpose of the two camps was obvious, to carve open a breach for the elite infantry of the Hundred battles Battalion to follow.
For that reason, the Vanguard Battalion and the Siege Battalion suffered the heaviest casualties, but Qi Guangbo did not care. A commander not only had to understand that mercy did not belong in the handling of troops, he also had to possess the resolve to use soldiers like clay.
Since ancient times, a siege had always been something built with the lives of soldiers.
Qi Guangbo held a single-tube spyglass and observed the savage struggle on the walls.
Under the cover of cannon fire, the Vanguard Battalion and the Siege Battalion charged through rolling logs and arrow volleys. After paying a dreadful price, they finally fought their way onto the battlements and engaged the defenders in a fight to the death.
The opening had been carved out.
Qi Guangbo’s expression remained calm. He reached into a saddlebag and drew out two small flags, one black and one red.
The black flag represented the elite Hundred battles Battalion, a full ten thousand infantry led by Yang Chuannan, former Provincial Administrator of Yunzhou, together with a number of fourth rank experts. These were the true core elites.
Whether in the Great Feng or Yunzhou, the main force was in fact still infantry.
How many cavalry could there be? The Central Plains were not like the northern steppe, with its boundless grasslands and vast herds of cattle, sheep, and fine horses.
Boom, boom, boom!
War drums thundered. The Hundred battles Battalion, long eager for action, charged forth. The formation of ten thousand spread out, and under their respective leaders they raced towards the city walls.
“The cannons on the walls are a bit too fierce.”
Qi Guangbo then tossed the red flag to his deputy.
The deputy at once passed down the order. Very soon, a great banner painted with a giant crimson bird began to wave vigorously.
“Kreee!”
Amid a shrill cry that rang through the heavens, four hundred riders of the Vermilion Bird Army rose from behind the main force and beat their wings into the sky.
Upon the backs of the giant birds with crimson plumage sat riders carrying quivers, while the birds’ talons gripped barrels of fire oil as they swept in great force towards the city walls.
Almost at the same moment, within Xunzhou City, two hundred riders of the black-scaled flying beast cavalry shot up into the air. Led by Tamo, the commander of the flying beast cavalry, they moved to intercept the Vermilion Bird Army in what was practically a suicide charge.
After the Siege Battalion and the Vanguard Battalion had just used their lives to “carve” an opening on the walls, the second savage battle broke out first in the high skies, far above the reach of even fourth rank martial artists.
In the heights, the Vermilion Bird Army, red as fire, and the flying beast cavalry, black-scaled and beating membrane wings, looked like a bank of red clouds and black clouds colliding at terrifying speed.
The giant crimson bird at their head bore no rider. It was a fourth rank great Yao, subdued long ago by Xu Pingfeng, and also the commander of the Vermilion Bird Army.
In the battle of Songshan County, the Vermilion Bird force under its command had slaughtered most of the flying beast army of the Heart Gu Tribe, reducing them from four hundred mounts to two hundred and twenty riders.
But while the flying beast cavalry had suffered serious attrition, the Vermilion Bird Army too had taken grievous losses. The four hundred riders now present were the Yunzhou army’s last remaining aerial cavalry.
The fearless savagery of the Heart Gu Tribe’s warriors had left an extremely deep impression on this fourth rank great Yao.
At the instant the two aerial cavalry forces met, the great Vermilion Bird suddenly spread its wings backwards, rearing its body upright as its claws, sharper than steel, closed down upon Tamo.
Tamo had only recently entered fourth rank. His cultivation was inferior to the great Vermilion Bird’s, and in close combat he was even less of a match. But the Heart Gu was best at control. At once he gave a sharp whistle and, using sound waves as a medium, forcibly affected the great Vermilion Bird’s primordial spirit.
The claws descending on Tamo stalled for a fraction.
In that brief gap, the black-scaled giant beast beneath Tamo brushed past the great Vermilion Bird, and the sabre in his hand drew a string of dazzling sparks across the Vermilion Bird’s belly.
It only cut off a few red feathers.
Flying mounts were unlike horses. Once they took to the air, they could not stop. The two leaders brushed past each other and plunged into the opposing formations.
The great Vermilion Bird twisted in mid-air, its wings like blades, instantly hacking two Heart Gu warriors and their mounts into several pieces. Blood splashed across its crimson feathers, making them appear even more vivid.
On the other side, Tamo rode his black-scaled beast, intimidating the crimson birds with Heart Gu techniques while swinging his sabre to cut Vermilion Bird riders from the sky as he passed.
Corpses of black-scaled beasts and crimson birds began to fall one after another.
When the first clash ended, the two forces had switched places, each having lost more than thirty riders.
The two aerial cavalry forces rapidly adjusted their formations. Tamo raised his sabre high and shouted in the tongue of the Southern Marches:
“Warriors of the Heart Gu Tribe, charge with me!”
The great Vermilion Bird gave a piercing screech and led the Vermilion Bird Army to meet them head-on.
After the second savage clash, each side lost more than twenty riders, and corpses rained down.
After the third clash, only one hundred riders remained of the Heart Gu Tribe’s flying beast cavalry, while the Vermilion Bird Army still had two hundred and sixty riders left. Leaving aside the great Vermilion Bird itself, the individual combat power of the Vermilion Bird Army was far inferior to that of the Heart Gu Tribe’s flying beast cavalry.
Heart Gu specialists were masters of beast control by nature, and could also affect enemy air cavalry.
After the fourth clash, the Heart Gu Tribe was reduced to only fifty riders, while the Vermilion Bird Army had shrunk to just over one hundred and eighty.
The great Vermilion Bird no longer continued trading lives for lives. Four hundred Vermilion Bird riders had been reduced to only one hundred and eighty, and its heart ached as though bleeding. These were all its direct descendants.
“This is the Great Feng court’s affair. Since when is it your place, a man from the Southern Marches, to throw away your life and blood for it?” the great Vermilion Bird shrieked harshly.
“How many flying beast troops does your Heart Gu Tribe even have to squander like this? Is it worth it, for the Great Feng? With the Great Feng court’s caprice and shamelessness, you may die for the Great Feng on the battlefield today, and tomorrow they may well march south and wipe out your shaman clans.
“Has the Great Feng court done too little repaying kindness with betrayal?”
Tamo gave a rough laugh.
“You stinking bitch, spare me the bloody nonsense. Warriors of the shaman tribes do not fear death!
“Brothers, charge with me!”
The remaining fifty-odd riders of the Heart Gu Tribe roared as one and drove their flying beasts straight at the Vermilion Bird Army.
This was the fifth charge.
This time, not one of the fifty riders survived. Like their comrades before them, they fell into the battlefield below and remained forever in the Great Feng.
Only Tamo was left, drenched in blood. The armour on his body had shattered, the blade in his hand was nicked and curled, and there were many mortal wounds on him.
The great Vermilion Bird was completely enraged, because the Vermilion Bird Army it had painstakingly built up had now been reduced to fewer than one hundred riders. More than ten years of effort had gone up in smoke.
“I will not let you die so easily. I will tear off your arms and legs, rip open your belly, and chew through your innards bit by bit,” the Vermilion Bird screeched.
Tamo lowered his head and looked at the scattered bodies of his tribesmen and their beast corpses on the city walls and below them, then said softly:
“They’re all dead, then.”
Silver Gong Xu’s younger cousin Xu Xinnian had once said something very poignant—earthen pots are bound to break by the well, and generals are bound to die before the lines.
Damn if that did not make perfect sense. Why could he never say anything with that level of culture?
He truly wished the little ones in his tribe could have the chance, like children of the Central Plains, to study for a few years too.
Still, such a chance might not be impossible in future.
Once the Great Feng won this war, then as allies, the shaman clans would be able to trade with the Central Plains. Tea, porcelain, and silk from the Central Plains would no longer be lacking to the shaman clans.
With Chief Chunyan’s wisdom, she would surely think of asking the Great Feng to lend them teachers.
Reading was good. Children who read were cleverer.
Tamo lowered his head and looked towards the battlements of Xunzhou, then shouted:
“Tell Silver Gong Xu that what he promised our shaman clans, not a single copper can be missing. That is what I deserve.
“In the stele forest outside Xunzhou City, there had better be the names of our shaman warriors. You bastards of the Central Plains, you’d better remember us.”
After shouting those two lines, he did not wait for any response from the defenders on the walls. He raised his nicked sabre and roared:
“Brothers, charge with me!”
But there was no one left behind him.
A single lonely rider charged forward.
…
All four hundred riders of the Heart Gu Tribe’s flying beast cavalry were annihilated, dying in battle at Xunzhou City.
Comments for this chapter. You will need a GitHub account. Please follow all terms and conditions of GitHub issues and maintain etiquette in the comments. Cookies are required for this functionality.
If you want to talk with other readers about Nightwatchers (or other cultivation type books) you can join our cultivation groupreading discord server!
I also have a Kofi, which for legal reasons is definitely for supporting my digital art only (promise!): ko-fi.com/yanxin ... plus I guess server space isn't free, and I don't want to put ads/trackers... ever, so thank you if you do!