Chapter One Hundred and Two: Taking Guazhou

Everyone on the battlefield was astonished by the thunderous blast, and then astonished again by Zhang Juntai’s words about spectral troops borrowing the road and the living keeping clear. Then they saw that the Guazhou city gate, which moments before had been intact, had vanished without a trace, and they grew even more convinced of his talk of ghost soldiers. People began saying that righteous force was indeed prevailing over the unrighteous, and that even the powers of heaven and hell were aiding Li Wenyuan.

In truth, there were no such spectral troops at all. This was nothing more than a spur-of-the-moment ruse Li Wenyuan had improvised. The coffins had all been packed tight with gunpowder, each one turned into a gigantic explosive charge, with a fuse hole left for ignition. At this time, city gates were not iron; they were usually made of wood, and at best could only be reinforced with bronze studs and trimmed with bronze edging. That was the limit, especially in remote and neglected Guazhou in the northwest. So once the gate was blown apart by those coffin-bombs, there was no longer any barrier between inside and outside the city.

However, the reaction of Li Gui’s army was a little beyond Zhang Juntai’s expectations. Just after the gate was destroyed by the coffin explosives, the soldiers inside hurriedly dragged the dead and wounded aside. Then, under Li Gui’s orders, they hauled over a blade cart from nearby, fixed it to the ground so it could not be moved at will, and had more than a dozen stout men brace it from behind so that it could not be shifted even slightly. Although Zhang Juntai and his men reacted swiftly, surging forward the instant they saw the Guazhou gate breached and scrambling up from the moat to attack the opening, they were still blocked by the blade cart, which obstructed the assault led by Zhang Juntai’s siege troops.

With arrows raining down from the battlements, Zhang Juntai led a band of long-bladed soldiers to the gate tunnel. Seeing that a blade cart already blocked the tunnel exit inside, he quickly looked up and studied the vault above the passage, discovering there were no drop gates, no concealed spear shafts, no quicksand traps, no hidden fire pots or poisonous smoke—none of the murderous devices one might fear. At last he let out a relieved breath, leaned against the wall, and said to the long-bladed soldiers beside him, “Do you still have strength left?”

The soldiers all nodded. This level of exertion was still within their limits. Seeing that his men remained fit for combat, he nodded as well and said, “Good. Then we’ll press the attack in one breath. Once we break into Guazhou, we go straight for control of the battlements. The fighting inside the city will be dealt with by others. Stay close to me, and do not lose formation.”

When he had finished, Zhang Juntai gripped his long blade, stood up, and looked at the blade cart before him and the neatly formed ranks of long-bladed soldiers behind him. In an instant his spirit swelled with grandeur. He shouted only, “What is a blade cart? Today, with my brothers united in heart and purpose, we shall move even mountains and split even stone. Let alone a mere cart of blades—break it for me!”

With that, he swung his long blade fiercely at the wooden cart before him. How could the sharp edge of such a weapon be stopped by an ordinary blade cart? Though some of the forging methods for the long blade had been lost, Li Wenyuan had made up for them with more advanced techniques from a later age, giving the weapon both rigidity and toughness while also reducing its weight. It could be used for hacking and slashing, and in an emergency it could even thrust. Repeated trials had exposed weaknesses in the original design, which were then improved upon, and thus large numbers of these long blades were forged and issued to the army.

At that moment Zhang Juntai charged at the front, brandishing his long blade and chopping and hewing at the wooden cart before him. Before long he had smashed it to splinters, revealing the stout men behind it. Those men stared at the wreckage in front of them in brief shock, then came to their senses, drew the straight sabers at their waists, and rushed toward Zhang Juntai.

Seeing the defenders behind the cart attack him, Zhang Juntai could not help but laugh inwardly, though he did not dare loosen his guard for a moment. He quickly fell back into formation and said to his long-bladed soldiers, “Form up. Blade forest.”

After receiving Zhang Juntai’s order, the long-bladed soldiers formed a solid square block, holding their blades horizontally and pointing them at the charging enemy. These were only the first rank of long-bladed soldiers; the second rank held their blades level in the gaps between the blades of the first rank. The remaining soldiers held their blades upright, ready at any moment to fill the spaces left by casualties in the front ranks.

At this point, although Li Gui’s defenders inside the gate were all trusted men and possessed firm morale and decent fighting strength, they were helpless against the straight sabers in their hands, for all they had were short blades. Faced with the solid formation of long weapons before them, they had no answer and could only be driven back step by step by Zhang Juntai’s long-bladed soldiers.

Seeing that the gate was about to fall, Li Gui could not help but grow anxious. He sent subordinates to direct the defense of the walls while he himself descended from the battlements to command the troops defending the gate tunnel. By then, the spears on Li Gui’s side could not pierce the armor of the long-bladed soldiers, while those soldiers’ keen blades could easily cut the enemy in two. Though Li Gui personally took charge of the battle, he had no solution in his heart. If they could not even break the other side’s armor, how were they to defend?

At that moment, the sound of hooves trampling earth came from within the city, and faintly there rose the pained bellowing of wild oxen. Li Gui turned his head and saw a herd of raging beasts with their tails aflame charging down the city’s main street, racing straight toward the gate tunnel. Li Gui cried out in panic, “Scatter! Scatter quickly!” As he spoke, he threw himself to the ground beside the wall. By then he cared nothing for dignity; saving his life mattered most.

Zhang Juntai also saw the herd of wild oxen charging headlong toward them. Knowing that the long-bladed soldiers in the gate tunnel would not be able to evade in time, he hurriedly shouted, “Fish-scale formation! Hold your positions. Do not panic.”

The formation quickly transformed into an arrow shape, its point aimed at the charging herd of oxen. Zhang Juntai stood at the heart of the formation, and fear stirred in him as well. He was not sure whether the armor on his body could withstand the impact of the beasts, but there was no better plan. He could only trust in this desperate measure, a way to seek life from within death.

At last the raging oxen crashed into the front of the formation. At the first impact, several long-bladed soldiers gave muffled grunts and fell backward, though they were caught by the men behind them. After confirming that those soldiers were unharmed, the reserve long-bladed soldiers said nothing further.

This method did indeed slow the advance of Zhang Juntai’s soldiers, but only by delay. His men suffered no serious losses. Seeing that even the mad oxen could do nothing to those long-bladed troops, Li Gui was shaken to the core. He no longer cared about defending the city; he fled instead with his trusted followers through Guazhou’s western gate, heading straight for Yiwu Commandery in the northwest. The remaining men of Li Gui’s army, unable to find their commander and with no one to command them, fell into confusion. As more and more of Li Wenyuan’s troops poured into the city, Guazhou had already fallen fully into Li Wenyuan’s hands.

I caught a cold these past few days, and my mind has been foggy.

The End