Chapter 15: Abyss of Suffering (1/2)
Chapter 15: Abyss of Suffering1
After a short period had passed, my mind finally calmed down, and I began to calculate how to respond to the present situation. Four hundred versus three thousand. Although both sides were elite troops, our side had the inconvenient nuisance that was me. Escape was likely impossible. The matter relating to Lu Can was better left to the future. At present, the primary priority was escape. I forced myself to forget that I was presently in the darkness within the jolting carriage, carefully thinking about how I could save myself. After a while, I suddenly came up with an idea. That Flying Tiger General had issued the order to capture me alive and kill the Prince of Qi. It seemed that to him the importance of the Prince of Qi and me were quite different. From the reward being offered, I was of greater importance. However, in my view, this was not the case. For any military commander, the death of the Prince of Qi was more important. In comparison, those soldiers probably could not comprehend my importance. To them, I was merely an objective that they needed to accomplish. Perhaps because of this reason, the bounty placed upon me was so high. This was to avoid all those soldiers from being focused on chasing the Prince of Qi. Even if my calculations were incorrect and they treated me as more valuable than the Prince of Qi, it would not be of great effect upon my plan.
Just as I was thinking of this, the door to the carriage was forcibly pushed open by someone. I saw the Prince of Qi, in a blood-soaked gown, yell at me, “Suiyun, we must split apart.”
I thought, Great minds truly think alike! I promptly replied, “Zhe was also of this mind.” Sticking my head out, I saw that we had reached a fork in the road. On both sides of the road was mountainous terrain. The Prince of Qi had ordered troops to block the road, temporarily hindering pursuing troops. I hurriedly grabbed that specially manufactured azure cloak, draping it around my shoulders.
Afterwards, I commanded Xiaoshunzi, “Quickly change into armor. Then bring me a horse. The Prince of Qi and we must separate. Your Imperial Highness, please give me fifty men. This way, we can split our pursuers.”
A gratified look flashed appeared Prince of Qi’s face, as he stated, “However, Suiyun, you have to be careful. If their target is you, I’m worried that it will be difficult for you to escape.”
Smiling, I replied, “Mayhap … However, in the minds of the Northern Han troops, you are likely the primary target. As a result, this time Your Imperial Highness will be the one bearing the brunt of the pressure.”
Afterwards, the Prince of Qi and I quickly studied the particulars about our fighting escape. After a while, the troops stationed at the crossing had exhausted themselves. Xiaoshunzi had already fully prepared for this eventuality. He untied the two steeds from the carriage. These two horses had been carefully selected and were fully capable of serving as warhorses. Xiaoshunzi handed the reins of one of the horses to one of the cavalrymen. After that, he changed into an exquisite set of white armor. From underneath the carriage’s seats, he took out two pikes, tying them together to form a pike that was two zhang in length.2 Xiaoshunzi then walked over and helped me mount one of the horses. Then he also jumped on, having me sit behind him. Using rope, he carefully tied me to him. Right then, the hundred strong Stalwart Tiger Guard and fifty of the Prince of Qi’s troops had formed a unit. On the horse, I glanced at the Prince of Qi, and coolly stated, “Your Imperial Highness, this subject will go ahead.”
When I finished speaking, under Xiaoshunzi’s command, our unit, including the hundred strong Stalwart Tiger Guard and fifty of the Prince of Qi’s troops charged into the wilderness. After galloping for several li, I turned and looked. I saw the Prince of Qi lead the remaining troops and charge off in another direction. The carriage that I had specially designed was overturned at the crossing, blocking our pursuers. Because of its design, my carriage was extremely heavy. It seemed like it would take some time for our pursuers to get past it.
The decision to split the troops was something that I had made after careful deliberations. The Prince of Qi to also reaching this conclusion left me with admiration. After all, while I had the time to think, he was busy fighting. The enemy had two targets. Even if the two of us were together, our strength wouldn’t be that significant, allowing the enemy to focus completely. Right now, although our separation greatly reduced our strength, the enemy would also hesitate over the decision of how to split troops. When all was said and done, we would not suffer. Moreover, fleeing and unable to strike back would only lead to our defeat. At present, it could be said that the Prince of Qi had nothing to worry about and he could think of ways to counterattack.
At this moment, Xiaoshunzi, out in front, spoke up, “Young master, there are about a thousand troops chasing after us. What should we do?”
I was delighted. As expected, to those unruly soldiers and their commander, the Prince of Qi, as the commander-in-chief of Great Yong’s northern army, was the most important target. However, a thousand pursuers wasn’t a small number. If we could not destroy them in one blow, it would be impossible for us to escape to go help the Prince of Qi. Examining the surrounding terrain, I instructed, “Have Huyan Shou move towards the wilderness. I have twenty Divine Heavens-Soaring Flame cylinders.”
Comprehending my intentions immediately, Xiaoshunzi nodded his head. “I understand. Water and flame are merciless.3 A good plan, indeed!”
Finished speaking, he began to discuss this matter with Huyan Shou, commander of my escort. When I was serving within the Prince of Yong’s household, Huyan Shou was originally an imperial bodyguard assigned to me. On this occasion, the emperor had dispatched him over because of this reason. Otherwise, why would a Vice Supervisor of the Stalwart Tiger Guard deign to serve as my escort? I listened as he and Xiaoshunzi discussed how to lure the enemy to take the bait. As expected, Huyan Shou was a skilled military commander. I silently prayed that we would succeed at the first attempt, otherwise my life would be left behind here.
At this moment, the pursuers behind us had gradually closed. There was nothing that could be done.… Although Xiaoshunzi’s horsemanship was outstanding, when compared to those troops who spent most of their lives on a horses, he was quite lacking. Fortunately, Huyan Shou’s leadership was fairly good. As we ran around in circles, we had not been caught and surrounded by the enemy. After a while more, our pursuers had been lured to a brush-filled wilderness. At the end of autumn, the dried up yellow brush would be so parched that they could be easily ignited. Seeing that the wind direction was suitable, Xiaoshunzi let out a shout. Everyone spurred their horses faster, while our pursuers maintained their speed. This was within our expectations.
When cavalry was chasing fleeing cavalry, their greatest taboo was forcing their horses to run at the fastest possible speed. If this were to happen, it would consume their horses’ stamina, easily falling behind. As a result, generally speaking, they would only spur their horses forward when they had already surrounded the enemy or when the enemy had no road to escape. As a result, they would usually control the speed of their horses, unhurriedly and calmly pursuing the enemy, waiting for the enemy’s horses to become exhausted before violently attacking, attaining victory in one go. Of course, this was applicable only when the quality of the horses on both sides was equal. If the enemy was too weak, they would naturally exhaust all methods. As a result, when we spurred our horses forward, increasing our speed, our pursuers had fallen behind a bit, not increasing speed in order to prevent their horses from being exhausted by the chase.
Unfortunately, that was their mistake this time. When the distance between us and our pursuers had reached approximately two li, Huyan Shou whistled. Our unit split into a dozen or more smaller groups, scattering in all directions. I heard the chasing Northern Han troops break out into laughter. It was clear that with us splitting up in our escape they would definitely win. From their laughter, I could hear their delight at being able to successfully hunt their prey.
At this very moment, Xiaoshunzi suddenly turned our horse around. Afterwards, a small, silver cylinder appeared in his hands. He repeatedly activated the mechanism on the cylinder. Several flames shot out from within the cylinder, swiftly igniting the dry grassland. If using normal arson methods, the Northern Han pursuers would have likely already broken through the fires by the time the flames were ignited. However, the Divine Heavens-Soaring Flame that Xiaoshunzi was using was not ordinary. In only an instant, a conflagration had already spread greatly. At the same moment, the scattered Great Yong troops had set numerous, similar conflagrations. The flames swiftly combined into one. The crescent-shaped fire swept towards our pursuers. The entire area was covered in dry brush. By the time the Northern Han cavalry took a detour to continue their pursuit, it would be too late. Right now, their only option was to retreat. However, they were located downwind. The flames and black smoke chased them. After they had fled for seven to eight li, they despairingly discovered that the fires blocked their retreat.
I could hear the miserable screams within the sea of fire. I could feel myself shiver inside. At the same time, I could not help but be proud of myself. Fortunately, because of the small, exquisite design and enormous power of the Divine Heavens-Soaring Flame, I had brought twenty cylinders on the carriage. At present, although we had practically used them all up, we had completely destroyed a pursuing unit of a thousand elite cavalry, truly cost-effective. Although I knew that it would be impossible to kill all of our pursuers, I believed that we would be able to at least kill more than half of them.
However, I regretted that the four individuals I had left behind were unlikely to have escaped. In order to achieve our goal of defeating our pursuers, I had Huyan Shou dispatch four men to leave our formation mid-journey and hidden off to the side. When they saw the fires blaze before them and the Northern Han pursuers retreat, they were to create two more fires. With this, the separate fires could join together and cut off the enemy’s retreat. But the Divine Heavens-Soaring Flame was too formidable. With the current force of the wind, it was impossible for the four of them to make their way back to us. However, I greatly admired their bravery. Although they knew of the dangers of staying behind, each and every one of them had competed for a place. I could not help but blush with shame.
Alas, there was no time to worry about this. Huyan Shou had reformed all of the scattered troops. We quickly departed. Right now, we were too close to the conflagration. If the wind were to change, we would likely also be buried here.
Leaving behind our pursuers who we did not have news about, we rushed towards the planned rendezvous point. Great Yong had numerous strongholds and bases scattered across the frontier. The Prince of Qi and I had arranged one of them as our meeting point. When the time came, the Prince of Qi could rely upon the stronghold’s defenses to stoutly defend, while we could launch a surprise attack from behind on the Northern Han army. This was a plan that we cooked up because we had no other choice. It would be impossible to use twenty Divine Heavens-Soaring Flame cylinders to deal with three thousand cavalrymen. As a result, I could only trick them into splitting troops before crushing one of the two divisions. Fortunately, there weren’t that many troops chasing me. Otherwise, we would likely have been forced to experience a bitter battle.
As I listened to the wind rushing past my ears, I prayed that His Imperial Highness, the Prince of Qi, would be able to safely arrive at our decided rendezvous point. Otherwise, I had no contingencies.
At this very moment, I obviously did not know that over an hour later, once the fires had gradually diminished, leaving behind blackened ash, a number of burned horse corpses would be pushed apart and a man covered completely in ash would stand up. In a grave, terrible voice, he shouted, “Jiang Zhe! You and I cannot exist together in this world!”
This man was Wei Ying. That day, he had abided by Lu Can’s orders. With Lin Bi’s token, he had arrived in the Northern Han army encampment. Under orders to provide support to Lin Bi, when the Flying Tiger General, Shi Ying, received Lin Bi’s orders, he led three thousand cavalrymen and set an ambush on the Prince of Qi’s return road. Wei Ying, who hated Great Yong to the bone, volunteered to take part in this operation. And what caused his spirit to be aroused was the fact that Jiang Zhe, as expected, was traveling with the Prince of Qi. Afterwards, when Shi Ying had split up his force, Wei Ying had chosen to pursue Jiang Zhe. However, instead of success, he had been trapped by the fire. Wei Ying was quite astute. He knew that his horsemanship was poor and it would be impossible to escape the sea of fire. Taking advantage of the chaos, he had killed several Northern Han cavalrymen who had fallen behind. After also killing their horses, Wei Ying had hidden himself under the horses. Covered with blood, he was barely able to escape the fate of being buried in this sea of fire. After angrily cursing, he began his journey back to Southern Chu. He was not so stupid as to continue to pursue Jiang Zhe. He did not have the courage to deal with over a hundred horsemen by himself.
When we finally arrived at the Gu4 Mountain Stronghold, although I was brought along by Xiaoshunzi, I was already extremely exhausted. The skin of my inner thighs had been rubbed raw by the saddle. This year, I was to be thirty years old, but I had never experienced this kind of suffering. Only when I was awakened by the deafening battle cries did I discover that this unit of horsemen had stopped on a slope. Not far from our position was the mountaintop. I could clearly hear the sounds of fighting on the mountain.
After Xiaoshunzi had helped me off the horse, he spoke, “Young master, ahead of us is the Gu Mountain Stronghold. His Imperial Highness, the Prince of Qi, is surrounded outside the stronghold. The troops within have tried on several occasions to rescue him, but have failed.”
My mind tightened. Gritting my teeth, I stood and replied, “Support me and let me take a look.”
Xiaoshunzi picked me up at the waist. Seeing that I did not resist, he brought me up the mountain. After we had hidden behind a boulder, I poked my head out to observe the battlefield.
Gu Mountain Stronghold was so named because of its position atop a small mountain. In reality, rather than calling it a small mountain, it was just some rock outcroppings. Moreover, within the stronghold was a spring with an enormous quantity of water, following the terrain and flowing down the mountain. When building the stronghold, a two to three zhang5 deep moat had been dug around it. Afterwards, the moat was filled with water from the spring. The Gu Mountain Stronghold, topographically well positioned and with the moat to keep the enemy at a distance, was a strategically important stronghold. However, because of the excessive sturdiness of the stronghold, the majority of the troops inside it were infantry. There were only three hundred horsemen garrisoned within.
Looking down, I could see that a thousand paces from the stronghold, the Prince of Qi was leading over a hundred wounded cavalrymen charging non-stop, seeking to break through. He was surrounded by a thousand Northern Han horsemen. The remaining seven to eight hundred horsemen were tasked with harassing the Gu Mountain Stronghold, deterring any reinforcements. I clearly saw that beside the moat there were a large quantity of corpses and several masterless horses wandering about. At the highest point of the stronghold, I saw black smoke curling up into the sky.
By this point, Huyan Shou had followed over. Deeply worried, he stated, “Daren, just now, the soldiers within the stronghold sought to provide support and rescue His Imperial Highness, the Prince of Qi. However, they were driven back. Although the stronghold has used the fire beacons to notify nearby strongholds and encampments, they likely won’t arrive for another two hours. Daren, we must rescue His Imperial Highness, the Prince of Qi.”