Chapter Ninety-Five: Burn, Kill, and Plunder
“Chief, why insist on leading the troops yourself? You could just leave it to us,” asked one of the Turkic horsemen.
“Hmph. That Li Gui thinks himself clever. He means to pressure me by spreading word that one of our own forces was destroyed. He even dragged out that so-called title of Khan to try to suppress me. What Khan? If the Great Khan had not personally ordered us to support him, would he ever have had the right to sit there as ruler of the Western Regions? These Han are utterly treacherous. They are experts at stabbing people in the back through every trick the bureaucracy can devise. Look at this matter alone: the order for us to send a small force ahead to delay Li Wenyuan’s advance was issued by Li Gui himself; the number of men dispatched was also set by Li Gui himself. And now, after the defeat, all the blame falls on us. What did he mean by ‘making use of our strengths’ and ‘annihilating Li Wenyuan’s army out in the open’? Nonsense. Wasn’t he simply trying to use this chance to weaken the troops in our hands? To weaken the power we hold? Li Gui is nothing but a faithless ingrate. It was only by the Great Khan’s favor that he came to possess such authority and rank. But now that his wings have hardened and he has passed through his hardest days, he is already trying to shake off the Great Khan’s control. If I do not lead this campaign myself, I fear I will sooner or later die in Dunhuang Commandery. Rather than die there in some muddled and ignoble way, I would rather fall in battle on the field,” the Turkic cavalry chief said through clenched teeth.
“Then, Chief, are we really just going to obey Li Gui’s orders like this?” the horseman asked, unwilling to accept it.
“No matter how ambitious Li Gui may be, he remains a khan personally appointed by the Great Khan. We must still listen to his commands. But it matters little. There is a saying among the Han that goes: those not of our own kind must harbor different hearts. Whatever orders Li Gui gives, our enemies are the Han, not the Turkic people. All the land east of Guazhou is now in Li Wenyuan’s hands. I have also thoroughly examined Li Wenyuan’s western expedition. Among his forces is a cavalry corps of fifteen thousand men. They outnumber us. Li Gui says we should seize the chance to wipe them out, but we are not going to go poking a hornet’s nest. Since we have finally broken through the Great Wall and reached Han territory south of it, we might as well follow the example of our ancestors and teach these Han men, in the Turkic way, who truly rules this Western Region,” the chief replied with narrowed eyes and a smile.
“Chief, what do you mean?” The horseman seemed to grasp his meaning and asked again.
“Exactly that. At every village we come upon, kill every male without exception. The women and livestock will be taken as spoils and rewarded to the warriors who joined the fight. After each night spent in a village, set it ablaze when we leave. Carry off whatever grain can be moved from the granaries, and burn what cannot. Any unripe crops in the fields must be destroyed as well. This time, we are going to leave the Han with an unforgettable nightmare. We will also let those Xiongnu see that even the Han who once made them too afraid to drive their herds south are still made to tremble beneath the iron hooves of the Turkic people. And it will be good to show them just how useless they truly are,” said the Turkic chief, the smile on his face growing ever wider. It was as though, under his command, all the Han people across the Western Regions were already quaking before him.
Hearing his chief speak so openly of his intentions, the horseman’s blood also ran hot. In the eyes of the Turkic people, a campaign against foreign lands was never for power. It was for plunder—for grain, for cattle and sheep, for cloth, for precious spoils they could not produce themselves, and, of course, for the women of the enemy. In their minds, once they had defeated an enemy, everything that enemy owned was theirs by right. After all, if one could take an enemy’s life, what were a few possessions besides?
These men had been restrained by Li Gui while in his domain. They had gone long without tasting women. Now that Li Gui had placed them in Li Wenyuan’s territory, all they faced were enemies. And since they faced enemies, there was naturally no need for so many scruples. The passions that had long been suppressed under Li Gui’s rule now burst forth all at once.
Under the Turkic chief’s command, their first stop was Liu Family Manor, northeast of Guazhou. Only a small contingent of infantry stationed by Li Wenyuan guarded the place. Moreover, to maximize the effectiveness of the firearms unit, no musketeers had been assigned to local garrison duty there. The defense was carried by ordinary foot soldiers alone.
Liu Family Manor had originally possessed no fortifications. Only after Li Wenyuan’s troops arrived did they fell trees from the surrounding woods, erect a ring of wooden palisades, set up watchtowers and checkpoints, and place chevaux de frise at the approaches. News of the Turkic cavalry’s approach had already reached them. The manor gates were shut tight, and all able-bodied men had taken to the palisade to help the imperial troops defend the place.
Originally, Zhang Juntai had intended that when the Turkic raiders came to plunder and harass, they would withdraw on seeing a strong fortification. For that reason, places with insufficient troops had all adopted a policy of denying the enemy any advantage by clearing the land and fortifying the defenses. But this time the Turkic men had come precisely to burn, kill, and plunder, and the newly built palisade at Liu Family Manor, thrown up in haste, was not especially sturdy. Under cover of arrows from some of their cavalry, the rest rode close to the wall, looped ropes over it, secured them around the battlements, and then spurred their horses forward in the opposite direction. Under the pull of several hundred powerful horses, a section of the wooden wall finally could bear no more and crashed down with a thunderous roar, dragging down with it the defenders who had been standing there and had no time to escape.
Seeing a gap torn open in the manor wall before them, the Turkic riders seized the chance to pour through and charge inside. Following their chief’s orders, they cut down anyone they saw. In barely half a day, the imperial garrison, the local youths who had come to assist in the defense, and even the old, weak, and disabled men were all slaughtered to the last. Their bodies lay strewn in disorder in the streets, on the wall, and inside the houses.
The Turkic men gathered the remaining women in the manor together, herding them like livestock into a temporary dwelling. They then slaughtered the cattle, horses, and sheep found in the manor to reward the soldiers. In the cellar of a wealthy household they even discovered several hundred jars of wine. After the bodies of their fallen comrades had been burned on the spot, it was time to celebrate victory. The Turkic men roasted beef, mutton, and horse meat over the fire, sat on the ground around the flames, drank wine, and sang their tribal songs to mark their triumph.
By sunset, these men, full of food and drink, made their way to the house where the women were being held and, like buyers choosing beasts, picked out the women they desired from among them. They dragged the chosen ones into their tents without a word, and before long the triumphant laughter of the Turkic men and the piercing cries of the women echoed across the skies above Liu Family Manor.
The End