Chapter 153: Pursuing the North (Part 2)

Dozens of cavalrymen were scattered along both sides of the road, trying to stay on higher ground as they scouted the terrain ahead.

These dozens of troopers were all traveling light. They wore no armor, dressed instead in thick fur coats. Some wore helmets, while others wore soft caps.

Every single one of these riders had two horses: they rode one, and the reins of the spare horse were tied to the saddle. The empty horse was reserved for combat, its back draped with a layer of felt to block arrows. Their dry rations, weapons, and travel sundries were all loaded onto their mounts.

The faces of the riders bore the weathering of wind and frost, and the distinct ancestry of northern nomadic tribes was visible on many. As they sat in their saddles, squinting into the distance, their expressions radiated a numb and indifferent air born of habitual intimacy with life and death.

Wang Rengong directly commanded five divisions, and the Mayi Elite Cavalry was the most formidable among them.

The Mayi Elite Cavalry typically maintained a strength of about a thousand horsemen, divided into five battalions, to which Shi Chaozhi’s force belonged. Yet without a doubt, the absolute elite among them was the Vanguard Battalion.

The native Han youths and chivalrous lads of Mayi who wished to enlist in the military overwhelmingly chose Liu Wuzhou. It was an undeniable fact that Liu Wuzhou held the hearts of the people in Mayi.

To contend with Liu Wuzhou’s Heng’an Armored Cavalry, Wang Rengong was also frantically recruiting fierce warriors.

Whether it was the personal retainers and guards his family had accumulated over many years, or the veterans scattered from the routed army after the disastrous campaign against Goguryeo, anyone with genuine skill was crammed into the Mayi Elite Cavalry. Deeming even this insufficient, Wang Rengong took advantage of the borderlands' proximity to extensively recruit nomadic tribesmen into the army.

Ever since the chaos of the Five Barbarians had plagued the Central Plains for centuries, the northern lands had possessed a mixed bloodline. Last year, during the great war against the Tujue, many nomadic captives had been taken; Wang Rengong had handpicked the fiercest among them to fill the ranks of the Mayi Elite Cavalry. These various sources collectively formed the Vanguard Battalion.

The Mayi Elite Cavalry was already the very lifeblood of Wang Rengong, and this Vanguard Battalion, composed largely of formidable nomads, was the absolute apple of his eye!

Shi Chaozhi’s entire battalion had been wiped out cleanly and swiftly, and Wang Rengong had no idea how formidable the so-called Master Yue occupying Shenwu truly was.

Wang Rengong had always styled himself as a chosen renowned general of the Great Sui: an elite force was created precisely to be deployed. Unlike some mediocre generals who painstakingly raised an elite force only to clutch it tightly in their palms, reluctant to deploy it until disaster struck, rendering it useless even if thrown into the fray.

To counterattack Shenwu, Wang Rengong deployed the Vanguard Battalion as his very spearhead right from the start!

Light cavalry were sent ahead as distant scouts; if the enemy showed weakness, they would strike straight beneath the walls of Shenwu to overawe the adversary. If the enemy proved formidable, they would signal the main army to advance, avoiding losses from ambushes.

These nomadic riders, maintained on generous rations within Shanyang city, were like a pack of tigers and wolves, serving as the vanguard pointing straight at Shenwu.

The leader of this detachment was a horseman with a hooked nose—a Tujue by birth whose original tribal surname had long been lost to time; everyone simply called him Zehuan.

In the seventh year of Daye, the Eight Tujue Wolf Banners invaded Yanmen Commandery together, smashing thirty-nine out of its forty-one fortified towns and strongholds, and trapping the Emperor of Daye inside Yanmen city to weep day and night. In the end, the realm’s elite troops and fierce generals, along with loyal ministers and stalwart soldiers, converged on Yanmen to rescue the sovereign, and the Eight Tujue Wolf Banners were defeated and forced to retreat. It was then that Zehuan had been stranded in the Han lands, eventually recruited by Wang Rengong to become a squad leader in the Vanguard Battalion of the Mayi Elite Cavalry.

At this moment, his boots rested in the stirrups, sitting cross-legged in the saddle as he let his mount walk slowly, straining his eyes to scan the distant scenery.

Dozens of vanguard riders watched Zehuan’s expression.

Although it was just after successive days of torrential rain, the autumn wind beyond the border was exceptionally fierce, drying the muddy roads within a mere day or two. Dust was now kicked up once more, shrouding the distance in a grey haze. Yet the entire route from Shanyang to Shenwu lay within the Sanggan River basin, the roads broad enough to allow cavalry to gallop freely, while both sides were flanked by rolling low hills and undulating terrain—a broken landscape rife with places to conceal troops.

Thinking of the mysterious force that had suddenly seized Shenwu and slaughtered Shi Chaozhi’s entire battalion without a trace, these vanguard cavalrymen could not help but redouble their caution. Furthermore, Zehuan had always been the premier elite scout of the Mayi Elite Cavalry; no trace of the enemy could escape his eyes if they were anywhere nearby. Pausing their horses atop the hills, everyone simply waited for Zehuan to speak.

Zehuan finally shook his head, unhooked his leather wineskin, and took a deep gulp of liquor. Only then did he speak: "No sign of a large army's traces. At most, there are scouting parties of a few dozen men moving back and forth. This road is completely clear!"

A vanguard rider snorted: "Squad Leader, Shi's battalion was wiped out without a trace! Even if the Heng'an Armored Cavalry arrived in person, could they have obliterated Shi's forces so thoroughly without several times their numbers? Surely some should have escaped back to us! I wonder if Liu Wuzhou brought the main force of the Heng'an troops instead!"

Cavalry forces were units of assembly and dispersal; suffering defeats was common, but completely annihilating a force was exceedingly difficult. By turning their horses' heads and fleeing, a good number could always get away. Not a single man from Shi Chaozhi’s battalion of Mayi Elite Cavalry had returned—must not the enemy possess an overwhelming superiority in numbers to hunt them down so cleanly and thoroughly?

Perhaps the most formidable Heng'an Armored Cavalry under Liu Wuzhou's command had struck!

At the thought of the Heng'an Armored Cavalry, these vanguard riders could not help but change color. While they might boast inside Shanyang city that they were the finest elite force under heaven and that no army in the world could match them, those damn Heng'an Armored Cavalry were truly ferocious!

During the great war last year, Duke Tang had spearheaded the organization of an overwhelming coalition army to repel the Jibilv tribe, and they had pursued the Jibilv forces all the way to the vicinity of Yunzhong city. The Heng'an Armored Cavalry had sortayed from Yunzhong city, tearing into the Jibilv army and leaving them bloodied and battered; that fierce, unstoppable armored cavalry charge was something everyone still remembered vividly in their hearts!

These vanguard riders could not possibly know that the Mayi Elite Cavalry had been scattered and were pillaging everywhere before being systematically dealt with one by one by Xu Le, and finally cornered in large numbers within Shenwu city where the blocked gates ensured not a single one managed to escape.

Zehuan merely shook his head: "Hiding that many men along the road cannot escape my eyes! If we advance too slowly, the noble lord will have our heads!"

His Han Chinese speech was still not entirely fluent, his tone extremely harsh. Without waiting for a reply to his words, he spurred his horse down the hill on his own initiative, continuing onward in the direction of Shenwu.

The men exchanged glances, each cursing inwardly in their hearts: "That Tujue dog!"

With the squad leader leading the way and military law hanging over their heads, the men had no choice but to follow.

Under Zehuan’s leadership, this troop slowly made its way toward Shenwu.

Suddenly, Zehuan pulled hard on his reins, bringing his mount to a halt.

A gust of wind blew past, scattering the dust and smoke. Blocking the road right ahead was a troop of cavalry. Their clothing and armor were entirely of the Mayi Elite Cavalry pattern, except that black lacquer had been painted over their armor to tell them apart.

This troop of cavalry stood silent as a wall, blocking the path directly before the Vanguard Battalion, separated by a distance of barely more than a hundred paces.

The riders of the Vanguard Battalion were struck dumb with shock, and the neighing of startled warhorses suddenly rang out!

Zehuan’s eyes, however, lit up: "Not the Heng'an troops!"

Then, the Tujue fellow let out a cold, mocking chuckle: "There are no more than sixty riders!"