Entrepreneurship in the Late Tang Dynasty

Chapter 219 Asking for Credit
"Whoosh!"

A tremendous whooshing sound exploded on the deck.

After the anchor was lowered, the militiamen on deck shouted loudly:

"Win the string!", "Win the string!"...

Before Zhao Huai'an left Bianzhou, he made a special trip to the Bianzhou armory. After Wang Duo left, all matters in Bianzhou were decided by his sworn brother. He had the power to not use it, which was a waste.

Then he discovered these deadly weapons in the armory: ballistae.

Originally, these were all placed on the city wall of Bianzhou, but Bianzhou had not fought for many years, so in order to prevent the ballistae from being damaged by wind and rain, they were put into the armory and were never taken care of.

Then Zhao Huai'an thought, since no one wanted these ballistae in the warehouse, wouldn't it be reasonable for him to pick them up and use them as firewood?
In the end, the treasury official was given a small sum of money, and the twenty pieces of military equipment were sent to Zhao Huai'an's fleet overnight.

Because the Baoyi Army's fleet lacked warships and was not capable of naval warfare, Zhao Huai'an selected ten large ships with a capacity of 1,000 shi (a unit of weight), all of which were purchased from the Jiaozhou Shipyard, and then installed the twenty ballistae on the deck.

These ballistae were originally intended to deal with river pirates, but now they are proving useful under the walls of Caozhou.

Despite the chaos, the crossbowmen on board, though in disarray, continued to operate these massive machines according to their previous training manuals, as the shouts continued to echo from the ship.

Each ballista had about a dozen people working on it, with six strong men turning the winch to wind up the ballista. Then three men carried huge spears, loaded them, and then calibrated them.

At that moment, the ballista captain beside him was staring at the standard-bearer on the mast. Upon seeing a red flag, he immediately roared:

"Launch, fire!"

At the same time, the same command roared out from the other nine large ships.

When the strong crossbowman pedaled the crossbow and released the iron teeth, the bowstring on the ballista snapped back instantly, and the spear, as thick as a baby's fist, shot out!
"Bang!" "Bang!"...

With no visible trajectory, twenty spears shot into the grass army's cavalry formation two hundred paces away.

These elite cavalrymen were already in the middle and rear of the cavalry. As Huo Cun opened a passage ahead, these elite cavalrymen were preparing to charge in, when they encountered a devastating blow.

……

Within the ranks of the elite cavalry, a warrior clad in iron armor and wearing a black turban was shouting loudly when he suddenly heard a loud bang and instinctively looked up.

Then his head exploded like a watermelon, and the huge spear, carrying unparalleled power, charged towards the next one.

But the next one wasn't so lucky. After piercing one man's chest, the spear carried him through another, and so on, until it finally stopped after three men.

The last remaining grass army knight endured immense pain as he pulled himself off the spear. Looking down, he saw that his leather armor was already shattered, and there was a huge wound in his chest and abdomen from which blood gushed. Looking at his two brothers impaled on the spear, he could no longer hold back and let out a bloodcurdling scream.

With just twenty spears, a cloud of blood and flesh rose up in the grass army's cavalry formation. Screams and wails filled the air, and no fewer than thirty cavalrymen were killed in this attack. The remaining grass army cavalrymen, seeing this hellish scene, scattered and fled without hesitation.

At this moment, fewer than thirty cavalrymen followed Huo Cun into the formation, but now, due to the attack of the ballistae, his retreat was blocked, and he had no troops behind him.

Huo Cun, who was already in the ranks, was aware of this.

……

Huo Cun watched his men turn into meat skewers before his eyes, his face turning ashen, and his inner rage erupted.

He drew his iron mace and, taking advantage of the horse's speed, smashed it into the forehead of a "Wudangdu" warrior. Because of the chaos of battle, the warrior's helmet was nowhere to be found, so the blow directly shattered his skull.

White fluid mixed with blood sprayed directly onto Huo Cun's sleeve. He took off one side of his robe, revealing the iron armor underneath, and then slammed his hammer down on a foot soldier under his horse.

The man was wearing a helmet, but under Huo Cun's furious smash, the entire helmet caved in from the middle. The armored soldier's eyes were bloodshot, and he collapsed to the ground like a noodle.

Having killed two men, Huo Cun was filled with arrogance. After surveying the battlefield, he saw a brother fall from his horse. He spurred his horse forward, smashed the armored soldier with his mace, and then pulled the brother back onto his horse.

Seeing his dozens of comrades already locked in a fierce battle, Huo Cun roared:
"Follow me, I'll lead you out!"

At this moment, a soldier threw his lance to Huo Cun. Huo Cun caught it, swung it around, and immediately shifted to a weak spot, preparing to charge out from the northwest.

With the aid of his lance, Huo Cun was even more decisive, wielding his eighteen-foot lance to clear away all the Wudang warriors blocking his way, and then spurring his horse forward.

The space they carved out grew larger and larger, and more and more knights followed him out to escape. It was clear that they were about to break through.

Huo Yanwei, the commander of "Wudangdu" who had been holding his spear motionless in the rear, finally couldn't sit still any longer.

Standing under the banner, Huo Yanwei roared:
"The remaining archers don't need to concentrate; fire directly at those grass soldiers!"

Without any flags or drums, Huo Yanwei's voice reached the ears of the officers and soldiers on the battlefield.

So the armored soldiers, who should have been carrying swords and shields, picked up bows and crossbows from the ground, found quivers, and then, in groups of several, began to fire at the fleeing grass army knights.

The bowstrings flew like a torrential rain, and the grass-clad knights with their backs exposed fell from their horses like wheat grains.

After giving the order, Huo Yanwei led out a warhorse from under the banner. These were warhorses that the officers and soldiers had captured and brought over.

Because they were transported by small boats, the first wave of Wudangdu to land did not bring horses, which made Wudangdu's attack very passive.

Fortunately, the warriors in front were aware of this predicament, so they would send the captured warhorses to Huo Yanwei in the rear.

He had already amassed thirteen warhorses, so Huo Yanwei directly selected twelve men from the guards and brave soldiers behind him to serve as elite cavalry.

Huo Yanwei mounted his horse, holding his lance in one arm, and roared at the twelve riders behind him:

"You who want to kill me! Then leave your lives behind!"

After saying this, he spurred his horse and galloped off like lightning towards the northwest, which was Huo Cun's escape route.

Behind him, twelve riders, wielding spears, galloped forward with unparalleled bravery and strength.

……

In the direction from which Huo Cun broke out, a small team of more than ten people from Wudang were blocking the way.

The clerk was named Yang Keqiu, from the Yang clan of Dabie Mountain. He surrendered to the Baoyi Army with his second son, Yang Yanbao. Because of his bravery and being an important relative of the Yang clan, he was assigned to Wudang as a clerk.

Yang Keqiu was an important military general of the Yang family in the past and had experience in large-scale battles, so his awareness was much higher than that of ordinary junior officers.

When he discovered that the enemy's rear had collapsed, he realized that the cavalry in his ranks must be trying to break out.

The best place was to the northwest of his army's position, because that was where the troops were weakest.

So before Huo Cundu had even decided on a breakout direction, Yang Keqiu had already shouted for the officers and soldiers scattered nearby to gather and form ranks.

Several other soldiers, seeing the formation arrayed here, also rushed over. Yang Keqiu, carrying a large banner on his back and holding a spear in his hand, roared:
"Form a formation of infantry with spears!"

With a series of footsteps, the twelve Wudang armored soldiers formed two rows of spear formations, while Yang Keqiu stood alone beside the formation, staring intently at the changes on the battlefield.

Upon discovering that the enemy had indeed chosen to break out in their direction, Yang Keqiu immediately adjusted his course and ordered all his infantry spears to be aimed at the fleeing cavalry.

As the opposing knight became clearer, Yang Keqiu yelled at the top of his lungs:
"Hold on! Kill!"

The infantrymen, their hormones surging, their faces flushed, roared with trembling muscles:

"kill!"

……

The warhorse beneath him was panting heavily, and Huo Cun could clearly feel its exhaustion. At that moment, his comrades behind him cried out in the Handan dialect:

"Erlang, put me down, and you live!"

After saying this, he was about to dismount his warhorse, but was pulled back by a strong hand. Huo Cun cursed:

"I led you across the river from Hebei to join Huang Chao, hoping to share both good times and bad. How could I live alone?"

Then Huo Cun's eyes turned bloodshot as he glared angrily ahead, where an infantry unit stood in their path, arrayed in a spear formation.

But his anger vanished like frost upon seeing the dozen or so comrades around him, and he murmured:

"I brought you out, and I'll take you back!"

So, at the crucial moment, he turned his horse's head, his lance veering to the right, and shouted:
"Go around them!"

As he spoke, Huo Cun led his remaining ten or so riders off course and bypassed the square formation.

Just as they were about to cross, Huo Cun suddenly shouted to his brothers behind him:
Hold me!

After saying that, he took out a well-struck arrow from his saddlebag, drew out an armor-piercing iron arrow, turned around and shot it at the general standing by the army formation. It was obvious at a glance that this man was the leader of the small formation.

Those who can remain calm and think clearly even in the midst of a chaotic battlefield, and who can summon and deploy their troops, are indispensable!
But the arrow failed to fly, because thirteen riders suddenly appeared from behind, charging like thunder, heading straight for him.

Without any hesitation, ten elite cavalrymen immediately turned their horses around and chased after the enemy.

At this moment, Huo Cun had no choice but to turn his bow and shoot directly at the cavalry general of the pursuing cavalry.

The arrow was fast enough, and the armor-piercing arrow was extremely powerful, but this arrow was easily deflected by the cavalry general.

In that instant, Huo Cun knew that the person opposite him was no nobody, and shouted:

"Who is coming?"

The cavalryman roared and spurred his horse toward the ten riders who were covering Huo Cun.

One spear thrust, one spear swept horizontally, and another spear pulled back; in just three strikes, four men fell to the ground after the cavalry general charged past the obstruction.

At this moment, he roared:
"One of the Five Tigers of Baoyi, Huo Yanwei of Wudang!"

Upon hearing the name, Huo Cun thought it was a wonderful name. If it weren't for the fact that this person had this name, he would have loved to name his future son after him.

But at this moment, all he could do was curse:

"Five tigers? I think you're five dogs! The court is heartless, and you all risk your lives for it, siding with us righteous men. I think you're all blind!"

Huo Yanwei frowned, grabbed his lance, and rushed forward. He wanted to see if he could still be so hard when the lance hit his mouth.

Huo Cun wanted to fight him, but he knew his warhorse was about to give out, so he retreated northwards without a word.

But how humiliating this must have been for Huo Cun!

The attendant behind him knew that he had dragged Huo Cun down. With tears in his eyes, he suddenly drew his sword and stabbed at the horse's rump. Then he pushed Huo Cun aside and jumped off the warhorse.

The warhorse, feeling lightened, was stabbed again and galloped away at high speed.

Huo Cun, who was on horseback, was stunned for a moment. He turned his head to look and saw that his attendant had already stood up from the ground, holding a horizontal sword in both hands and blocking the thirteen riders behind him.

Then, Huo Cun saw that his companion was stabbed to the ground by Huo Yanwei in an instant, and the riders continued to chase after him, stepping over his body.

Blood rushed to his head. Huo Cun tried to stop the horse, but the frightened warhorse ignored him and continued galloping forward.

Then two mounted riders rushed up, and seeing Huo Cun about to jump off his horse, they both shouted with tears in their eyes:
"Erlang, don't let Lao Gao die in vain!"

One sentence left Huo Cun stunned, then he looked up and burst into tears, roaring:
"Ah! I will fight you to the death!"

The sound reached Huo Yanwei's ears from behind. He frowned, took out his longbow, took out the arrow with the longest range, and shot it at Huo Cun's back.

The arrow pierced the enemy general's back, but it didn't seem to cause any damage; the general must have been wearing iron armor.

Just as Huo Yanwei was about to shoot his second arrow, a loud gong suddenly sounded from the Baigou River behind him. He quickly spurred his horse and looked towards the northeast side of the battlefield.

There, a cavalry and infantry force had already set out from the city, their banners fluttering, their ranks impeccable, and their direction pointing directly at them.

He hesitated for a moment, then turned his horse around and shouted to the remaining guards:
"Go back! Prepare for battle!"

After saying this, Huo Yanwei glanced at the enemy general's back again, snorted, and then led his horse back to the formation.

When he reached the small formation where Yang Keqiu was, he saw Yang Keqiu standing alone outside. Suddenly, he stood up on his horse, and Yang Keqiu cleverly came up to help his horse.

Looking at this man, Huo Yanwei thought for a moment and remembered that this man was from the Yang family of Dabie Mountain, and his name seemed to be Yang Keqiu? This man is not bad, he has brains and determination!

Therefore, he spared no expense in exaggeration:

"Your name is Yang Keqiu? Well done! I'll report you for credit! Keep up the good work! With my Protect the Righteous Army, you have a limitless future!"

After speaking, Huo Yanwei glanced at the neat small formation, nodded to each officer and soldier, and then led the cavalry back to the banner. He was going to organize the troops to prepare for the second wave of enemy attacks.

Behind him, Yang Keqiu and the others were already cheering, this time, their brothers were going to make a name for themselves!
At the same time, the small boats on the Baigou River rushed towards the north bank again, and the second wave of troops finally arrived.

Upon seeing that another enemy force had arrived, the Cao army, which had originally planned to launch a counterattack, abandoned its intentions and, after receiving Huo Cun, led its troops back the way they came.

As the suspension bridge was raised once more, the Baoyi Army roared with joy on the riverbank and the lake!

Riverbank position, take it!
(End of this chapter)