Taiheiki

Chapter 179
“That is indeed true!” Li Biao pondered for a moment, then finally nodded. “Actually, it was bound to happen sooner or later. Everyone knows that the Zhan people have long harbored the intention to invade the north, but they are afraid of the strength of our Han Dynasty and dare not act directly. In the past two years, many of the rebels in Jiuzhen Rinan Commandery have been instigated by Zhan people. Now that our Han Dynasty is in turmoil and communication between the court and Jiaozhou has been cut off, the Zhan people have gradually learned about it, and naturally they will launch a large-scale invasion to the north. Whether this incident actually happened or not is not really that important!”

Upon hearing this, Wang Ge's expression turned somewhat awkward. The "internal strife of the Han Dynasty" that Li Biao mentioned was largely related to his lord. It could be said that the current predicament of the manor was largely due to Wei Cong. He coughed twice and asked, "Then what are the plans of the manor lord?"

"What are your plans?" Li Biao gave a bitter smile, then stopped his slumber and said, "We'll deal with whatever comes our way. My Li family has been established here for five generations. We were born here and we'll die here. At most, our whole family will die here, but we will never stoop to serve the barbarians!"

"Master Li's words are as firm as metal and stone!" Yu Wen clapped his hands in praise, "A true man should be like this! Although I am unworthy, I am willing to fight to the death to kill the traitors!"

"That won't be necessary!" Li Biao refused Yu Wen's offer without hesitation: "Both of you are young masters of noble birth, why should you die here? If you truly care for me, then please take my young son back to the county town and take good care of him. My entire family of hundreds of people will be grateful for your kindness!" With that, Li Biao bowed deeply to Yu Wen.

"This—" Yu Wen hesitated. Li Biao had clearly decided to live and die with Wubao. He wanted her to take the young child with her to prevent the annihilation of the entire clan and to leave behind a lineage. If she stayed, she would be going against his wishes, but if she left, it would feel like she was running away alone.

“In that case, we shall gladly accept your offer!” Wang Ge said with a smile. “Please rest assured, Master Li, we will ensure your son’s safe return to the county town!”

"Then I'll have to trouble you two!"

After Yu and Wang finished their meal, they returned to their lodgings. Yu Wen was about to lie down when he suddenly felt agitated. He stood up, walked to Wang Ge's door, and reached out to knock, but then lowered his hand. Suddenly, a horn blared through the night—a warning from the watchtower—signaling impending danger. In the blink of an eye, everyone was busy dressing and grabbing weapons. The horn sounded again, and Yu Wen, already dressed and armed, ran towards the gate. As he rushed past the granary, he saw Li Biao's eldest son shouting, "Quick, grab your bow and arrows and climb the wall! Young Master Yu, don't rush, wait for my father's instructions!"

Yu Wen ignored him and continued running forward. By then, he could hear the hoofbeats and shouts outside the wall.

In the darkness, Yu Wen stumbled up the parapet. The parapet was high enough that he had to stand on tiptoe to barely see over it. For a moment, he thought the village was surrounded by fireflies, then he realized it was a large group of people, torches in hand, running back and forth between the houses. He saw a thatched roof ablaze, its orange flames licking at the night. Then another fire broke out, and soon the surrounding area was engulfed in flames.

"How many people are there?" Wang Ge arrived a little later than Yu Wen, but he had already put on a helmet and was also wearing Yu Wen's.

"Look for yourself!" Yu Wen said as he fastened his helmet. In the night sky, the torches that had been thrown out were spinning, and through the crackling of the flames, he could hear the shouts of the Zhan people: "They'll come after the village is burned down. You can count them yourself!"

“It won’t take that long, look!” Wang Ge said, pointing to the firelight.

Seven or eight cavalrymen marched through the burning buildings toward the manor, followed by two lines of foot soldiers, the rear of the column indistinct in the darkness. The firelight illuminated their metal helmets, turning their armor orange. One of them held aloft a long lance, its tip adorned with a flag that fluttered, stained the color of blood by the firelight.

By this time, everyone had woken up, some rushing up to help defend the city walls, others busy calming the frightened livestock below. Yu Wen heard Li Biao shouting orders. Something bumped into his back; he turned around and saw the old soldier who had accompanied him, carrying his armor. "Going to battle wearing only a helmet won't do!" the old soldier said with a grin. "The enemy's arrows don't just aim for heads!"

"Thank you for your trouble!" Yu Wen hurriedly took the armor and, with the help of the veteran, put it on. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Wang Ge also putting on his armor. The rest of the guards filed onto the city wall, all fully armored. Some were stringing crossbows, while others were putting arrows into dung buckets so that the wounds of the enemies shot would be difficult to heal.

The cavalrymen reined in their horses at the gate of Wubao, while the infantrymen behind them stood sideways, like a giant viper coiled up. A cavalryman with a sharp voice shouted in heavily accented Chinese, "Open the gate immediately!"

"Should we give this guy a good whack?" a crossbowman asked in a low voice, nocking his crossbow to the firing port.

"You managed to hit it from that far away?" Yu Wen asked in surprise. He roughly estimated that the distance between them and the shouting enemy was at least forty paces. Hitting the enemy at night was no easy feat.

"Ordinary crossbows are indeed difficult, but this is the latest enemy-breaking crossbow, weighing three stones. Just a flick of the finger is enough to kill him!" The crossbowman laughed smugly.

"Shut up, you idiot! This is a war, not a place for you to show off!" the veteran scolded. "Why should we let the bandits know so easily how accurate our crossbows are? No one is to move without my orders!" He turned to Yu Wen and said, "Young Master Yu, the higher-ups said that the most important thing when defending a city is to prevent the bandits from knowing the true situation inside. Although we only have thirty men, if we use them well, they can be very effective!"

"So you mean—?" Yu Wen knew that this veteran was specially chosen by Wei Cong for Wang Ge, and that he was quite capable.

"There must be more than one way out of this village!" the old soldier said. "Under the cover of night, we'll go out through another path, circle around to the enemy's rear, and launch a pincer attack—"

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"Hmm, that's a good idea!" Li Biao looked at Yu Wen, his eyes filled with admiration: "Young Master, you remain calm in the face of the enemy; you truly are worthy of being Prefect Yu's brother!"

"Hehe!" Yu Wen was a little embarrassed by the praise. He was considering whether to tell the truth when he heard Li Biao say, "Yan'er, you will lead the way for the young master's brave warrior. Go out of Wubao through the tunnel and attack the bandits. Be careful!"

“Yes!” the young man who had once ambushed them by the roadside replied.

"A tunnel?" Wang Ge asked.

“Yes, it’s in the barn!” Li Yan’s attitude was much more respectful than before, clearly impressed by Yu Wen and Wang Ge’s bravery and cunning: “From here, it leads all the way to the small hill outside the village!”

"Why are you building tunnels?" the old soldier asked with a grin. "How wide are the tunnels? Can horses ride through them?"

“This place is different from other places; there are thieves everywhere, so we have to be careful!” Li Yan replied helplessly. “Can horses travel through the tunnels? Hmm, mules and donkeys are fine, horses should be able to too!” “That’s good!” the old soldier laughed. He turned to Wang Ge and said, “My lord, I’ll take the cavalry out, and you stay in the village with the crossbowmen! If you hear any noise, they can come out from the village and coordinate with us to attack from both inside and outside!”

"Okay!" Wang Ge reached out his right hand and grabbed the veteran's arm: "Be careful in everything!"

"Don't worry!" The veteran smiled and patted Li Yan on the shoulder. "With this young man, Li, leading the way, everything will be fine!"

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On the stone wall of Wubao, the knight who had been shouting was already getting annoyed. He waved his arm and said, "You have harmed the king's nephew. Open the gates and let us in to search for the murderer! Otherwise, the entire village will be wiped out, not a single chicken or dog will be spared!"

"I don't know anything about the king's nephew. I only know that a group of bandits attacked a neighboring village, so I led men to its rescue!" Li Biao shouted.

"That's our king's nephew!" the knight shouted. "Open the gates, or you'll all die!"

"We can offer compensation!" Li Biao said in a deep voice. "You can name your price. This is Rinan County of the Great Han Dynasty. If you Linyi people burn down the villages of the Great Han people, the governor will surely send troops to punish you when he finds out!"

"The Great Han's Rinan Commandery? The Prefect?" A cavalryman outside the city laughed loudly: "Sending troops to conquer? You Han people are too busy killing each other to have any spare strength to care about this place."

"A governor? He's already in dire straits himself. In just a few days, we'll march all the way into Jiaozhi, and this whole place will become our territory!"

"I'm saying this one last time, open the gate, or I'll kill them all!" the man shouted.

Seeing Wang Ge lead the crossbowmen back to the wall, Li Biao said in a deep voice, "No!"

"Begin! Kill them all!" The knight leader lazily clenched his fist and swung it forward. The archers behind him, already prepared, stepped forward, drew their bows taut, pointed them diagonally upwards, and then released the strings. Wang Ge quickly pulled Yu Wen's outer robe down, and the two crouched down, the sound of arrows slicing through the air still ringing in their ears. Shouts of battle, the clash of swords, curses, and the clashing of hooves echoed from outside the wall. A torch flew high over their heads, crashing heavily onto the muddy ground behind them, flames immediately spreading.

"Everyone scatter!" Li Biao shouted. "Hold your positions, stand behind the parapet, and watch out for the enemy's arrows!"

"Ready—!" Wang Ge drew his ring-pommel sword. The crossbowmen beside him stepped on the footplates, held their breath, and used all their strength to string the crossbows, load the bolts, aim at the enemy who was trying to cross the trench, and flicked the iron handles. Almost simultaneously, many gaps appeared in the crowd on the other side of the trench, but they were quickly filled by more people.

"Quick, wind it up!" Wang Ge shouted. He saw the bandits rush across the trench. They had no ladders, but the stone wall, though sturdy, had many gaps between the stones, making it easy to climb. Almost the next second, Wang Ge saw a hand climb up the breastwork. By the firelight, he could clearly see that the fingers were dark brown, calloused, and the thumbnail was full of dirt. Wang Ge raised his ring-pommel sword, aiming the blade at the spot next to the fingers. As the helmet appeared behind the hand, he thrust it forward with force.

"Die!" Wang Ge roared, blood splattering as the half-hidden black face vanished with a mournful cry.

"later!"

Wang Ge didn't know who was shouting, but he had already learned how to deal with it from his instructors and veterans. As he sheathed his knife to protect his head and chest, he spun around and saw another thief with a full beard, biting his sword with his teeth and climbing up the wall with both hands. Before his legs could even get over the wall, Wang Ge's blade pierced his groin. He let out a strange scream and fell off the wall.

"Beat those guys down!" Wang Ge roared. Then another man tried to climb the section of the wall where he was, but Wang Ge chopped off his neck and sent him falling.

In the darkness, the enemies seemed endless. Every time Wang Ge slashed, stabbed, or pushed someone down, another would climb up the wall. An enemy clad in iron armor appeared on the top of the wall. Yu Wen went to meet him and skillfully stabbed the enemy in the thigh with his spear. As the enemy fell in pain, Wang Ge took off the mace from his waist and stepped forward to smash the enemy's head.

Four thieves rushed to the gate, attempting to chop it down with axes, but the crossbowmen on the watchtower beside the gate shot them dead one by one. Women and children busily carried arrows, stones, and boiling water up the wall, and carried the wounded down. Everywhere smelled of blood, smoke, and iron, and over time, it all became the same smell.

Wang Ge felt numb, instinctively swinging his weapon to kill the enemy before him. He didn't know how the gaunt man had climbed up, but he and Yu Wen instinctively charged forward. Yu Wen swept his spear shaft, knocking off the enemy's helmet. The man looked quite old, with a gray beard and a pursed mouth, appearing terrified. Although Wang Ge felt a pang of pity, he still plunged his blade into the enemy's chest.

"The enemy has retreated! Listen, there are bugle calls!"

Wang Ge looked around and realized that there were no more enemies on the wall. Through the loopholes in the parapet, he could see many figures struggling to climb up the trench. The archers on the stone wall easily shot through their exposed vests. In the distance, he could faintly hear the sound of horns and horses' hooves. Yes, there were horses' hooves!

"They're our people!" Wang Ge exclaimed joyfully. "The ones who came out through the tunnel earlier. Quickly, tell Master Li to open the door, we'll go out and meet them!"

“Yes!” Yu Wen nodded: “We can’t let those who go out be isolated and helpless!”

The two men found Li Biao, who, along with the crossbowmen they had brought, had more than thirty able-bodied men. Wang Ge arranged the men into two columns, sandwiching the crossbowmen in between, and opened the gate to go out. The enemy outside the wall had already scattered, leaving only a few stragglers. They easily killed more than twenty of them and reached the center of the village. Hearing the sound of horses' hooves ahead, Wang Ge quickly ordered the men to form a circle, with their spears pointing outwards and the crossbowmen aimed at the source of the hoofbeats.

(End of this chapter)