Chapter Eighty-Six: The Turkic Cavalry
Li Wenyuan personally led two legions westward out of Jiayu Pass, advancing toward the first destination since the western campaign began—Yumen Pass. The combined force of thirty thousand soldiers, along with countless laborers responsible for logistics, brought sudden bustle to the once desolate official road that had languished since Li Gui’s rebellion.
This expedition was anything but covert. On the contrary, Li Wenyuan made a grand display, even holding a solemn flag-raising ceremony at Jiayu Pass before departure, ensuring that word of his campaign reached Li Gui’s ears well in advance. Since Li Gui’s uprising, he was freed from the restraints of the imperial court, but his days had been far from smooth. Not only had he inexplicably lost half of the Western Regions’ eight commanderies— and the four most prosperous at that— but the wealth he had painstakingly amassed was completely intercepted by Li Wenyuan. Upon his arrival in Yiwu Commandery, Li Gui found himself without even enough military pay for his soldiers, forcing him to seek the Turks’ support, accept their investiture, and rely on their financial assistance to avert mutiny within his ranks.
Now, after conquering Qiemo and Shanshan commanderies, his once strained finances and manpower had somewhat improved. The wastelands in both commanderies had been reclaimed and sown with grain, with the autumn harvest reserved for military use. Yet just as things began to look up, news arrived from Jiayu Pass: Li Wenyuan was leading his army westward. On hearing this, Li Gui flew into a fit of rage, cursing aloud, but even so, there was nothing he could do.
Li Wenyuan’s forces now threatened Yumen Pass, his eastern outpost. The lands west of Yumen were among Li Gui’s chief sources of grain for the year; if Li Wenyuan seized or destroyed these fields, Li Gui’s troops would likely face starvation in the coming winter.
Thus, Li Gui made a swift decision: he dispatched his Turkish cavalry to harass Li Wenyuan’s army, hoping to slow their advance. Meanwhile, he would gather his own main force and march to Yumen Pass, determined to keep Li Wenyuan’s troops out of Dunhuang Commandery and protect his grain supplies from harm.
Although Li Gui had accepted the Turks’ investiture, their supporting cavalry units obeyed orders but not commands— they did not truly accept his authority, following only the decrees of their Great Khan out of tradition. These cavalry units had long plagued the local people, and by sending them to the front, Li Gui hoped not only to delay Li Wenyuan’s advance but also to let the latter’s army wear down the Turkish horsemen. In his eyes, aside from the elite forces commanded by famous generals, the rest of the Central Plains’ armies were little more than rabble, hardly a match for the Turkish cavalry.
He had also heard of Li Wenyuan’s reforms to military organization and regarded them with disdain. Traditionally, the Central Plains’ armies countered Turkish cavalry either with superior horsemen or by using war wagons and archers to inflict such heavy casualties that the Turks would retreat, only to be pursued. But Li Wenyuan had not only reduced the size of each unit, he had abandoned war wagons altogether, adopting a mixed infantry and cavalry formation.
Li Gui found this laughable. Li Wenyuan, he thought, might have some talent for pacifying the people, but he was clearly ignorant of military affairs. If his troops suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the Turkish cavalry, he might well be driven back to Jiayu Pass. As for himself, if he could endure this winter, next year’s surplus grain would allow him to raise more troops, break free of Turkish control, and become a true king in his own right. He even dreamed that, with the Turks as unwitting pawns, he might one day vie for supremacy in the Central Plains.
Li Gui could already picture himself ascending the throne, receiving the homage of all his ministers. Fired with ambition, he sent repeated orders to the Turkish cavalry, urging them to intercept Li Wenyuan’s army at any cost, and not allow them to capture Yumen Pass before his own forces arrived.
It must be said: the Turks were a fiercely warlike people. Dispatched by the Western Turkic Great Khan to assist Li Gui in his conquest of the Western Regions, they looked down on Li Gui, a minor khan of Han descent, even if invested by their own ruler. But when news came of an impending battle— and with the enemy none other than the Han army, whom they always derided as “two-legged sheep”— their disdain for Li Gui was forgotten. They accepted his orders and set out at once, riding day and night from Dunhuang Commandery, crossing the Shule River, and advancing eastward along the northern foothills.
Li Wenyuan, for his part, had also received the news. He placed his Wudelu Cavalry Legion at the very front as the vanguard— the fourth legion, and his only all-cavalry corps, whose speed would not be hampered by infantry. Their orders were to hunt down the enemy scouts sent by Li Gui’s army.
When Li Wenyuan learned that the Turkish cavalry had passed through the Yin’ao Gorge in the northern mountains and were heading toward Wutong County, he turned to Zhang Juntai at his side and said, “We cannot proceed further. Order the army to turn north at once and encamp at Huahai County at the foot of the ancient Great Wall, ready to confront the Turkish cavalry.”
Zhang Juntai agreed. The first legion— fifteen thousand strong, along with the logistics laborers— immediately shifted north and entered Huahai County. There, they established a large camp anchored on the ruins of the ancient Great Wall. Facing the formidable Turkish cavalry, Zhang Juntai dared not be careless; he promptly directed his subordinates to construct all necessary defenses against cavalry assaults, then settled the laborers within the county itself, while the main force encamped beneath the Great Wall.
Li Wenyuan watched as his men methodically prepared their defenses and nodded in approval, leaving them to their work. He turned his gaze to the portion of the ancient Great Wall that protected their camp. In the waning days of the Central Plains’ dynasties, there had been no means to maintain this Han-era fortification, and after centuries of wind and sand, much of the wall had crumbled. The section supporting the camp was little more than broken bricks and rammed earth, while Huahai County nearby relied solely on earthen walls for defense. However, with the Turkish cavalry exhausted from their long journey and ill-suited for sieges, even these earthen ramparts could serve as effective defenses.
Thinking of the “grand gift” he had prepared for the Turkish cavalry, Li Wenyuan was curious to see just how shocked they would be by what awaited them.