Chapter Ninety-Six: The Assault

At the Guazhou front, Li Gui’s forces arrived in wave after wave. In no time at all, Guazhou had become the liveliest place in the Western Regions. Nearly eighty thousand troops from both sides, together with the laborers and porters attached to the armies, swelled the number of people gathered around Guazhou to more than two hundred thousand. Countless stores of grain, fodder, armor, and weapons were being hauled toward the front, and along the main roads long caravans of transport wagons stretched on and on like endless serpents.

Li Wenyuan’s army, however, drew its provisions from the state granaries. Li Gui’s side, by contrast, requisitioned supplies directly from the people. As a result, the common folk living near the Guazhou front fled in all directions, many of them escaping to Li Wenyuan’s side. At first, Li Gui’s troops still intercepted these fleeing refugees. But after the matter was reported to Li Gui, he only laughed and said, “There is no need to stop those who run away. Let them flee to Li Wenyuan. The more, the better. It will only hasten the depletion of his grain supplies. Did he not always style himself as a man who loves the people? He certainly will not let them starve and die on his own ground. This time, let Li Wenyuan taste the bitter fruit of his own making.”

With Li Gui’s approval, his troops loosened their control over the fleeing refugees. This in turn produced a great tide of displaced people streaming from Li Gui’s side to Li Wenyuan’s camp east of Guazhou. When Li Wenyuan received word that refugees were coming to him for protection, he was at first rather curious why Li Gui would so casually hand over these potential recruits and sources of provisions. Later, through Night Owl’s reconnaissance, he learned that Li Gui meant to use these refugees to consume his grain, and he could not help but snort in contempt. “That whelp Li Gui has a truly vicious mind. Since he wants these refugees to come to us and drag down our army’s grain supply, he has badly miscalculated. Immediately send Qian Wentong, together with the officials responsible for this matter, to the Guazhou front to disperse these refugees throughout Zhangye Commandery and settle them properly. After their household registration has been completed, they must be treated as our own people.”

The northwest had always been sparsely populated, with vast stretches of land lying uncultivated. Even after receiving so many refugees from the Central Plains, there was still more than enough open land to settle them. Though this would require expending a great deal of grain this year to keep the refugees alive, next year’s autumn harvest would yield even more.

In the long view, this was no bad thing. With the world on the verge of collapse, the people themselves were the most precious resource. That was not something those bound by the limits of their age could easily understand. After all, so long as these people remained alive, they could once again accumulate immense wealth for society and provide a far larger pool of soldiers. Moreover, as one side grew, the other would wither. The more people Li Wenyuan had, the fewer Li Gui would retain. That meant Li Wenyuan’s ability to endure a prolonged war would only grow stronger, and with each battle he would gain more confidence. Li Gui’s side, by contrast, would see its population drain away, leaving it ever more short of men and grain, and the struggle would only become more desperate for them. So as far as the refugees fleeing from Li Gui were concerned, Li Wenyuan welcomed them with open arms.

After personally stepping forward to comfort the refugees and entrusting them to the proper officials, Li Wenyuan left the place where they were temporarily sheltered amid their voices of gratitude. He could not help thinking that throughout history, every founding ruler of a dynasty had been praised as one who loved the people as dearly as his own children. But how many of them truly loved the people that way? In truth, they merely valued the benefits those people could bring them. After all, only when the people’s lives were stable could greater wealth be produced for society, and only with that wealth could one’s rule be secured. In the final analysis, so-called love for the people was nothing more than a means of stabilizing the realm one governed.

The refugee matter had been properly settled when word came from Uderu as well: at last, they had caught the trail of that Turkic cavalry north of the Guazhou front. After receiving Li Gui’s order, that cavalry had rested in Guazhou for only one day before riding eastward into Li Wenyuan’s territory. There they burned, killed, looted, and committed every kind of atrocity. In just a few days, more than a dozen villages had been trampled to ruins beneath their horses’ hooves, the dead and wounded among the common people were beyond counting, and the property losses were simply impossible to tally.

When he learned of what this eastward-moving Turkic cavalry had done upon entering his lands, Li Wenyuan’s face turned livid with rage. With a dark expression, he issued Uderu a deathly serious command: no matter what, the cavalry’s movements had to be tracked down. The moment their trail was found, he was to be informed at once. He himself would lead the cavalry to annihilate these Turks on his own soil.

After receiving Uderu’s message, Li Wenyuan set aside everything in hand and went straight to Uderu’s command tent. His horse, his mounted lance, and the rest of his gear had all been stored there temporarily. On the way to the tent, there was none of the lively bustle seen on ordinary days. What met his eyes instead were cavalrymen, grim-faced and silent, already dressed in armor and feeding their horses hay and clean water, very much like men preparing to march.

Seeing Li Wenyuan enter the tent, Uderu hurriedly rose and said, “Commander, the troops have been assembled. We can set out at any moment.” With that, he handed Li Wenyuan his mounted lance.

After taking the weapon, Li Wenyuan said to Uderu, “Good. Then we leave at once. This time, we will utterly destroy this band of Turks who have committed every outrage imaginable and avenge the suffering people. In addition, have every cavalryman tie a white band around his left arm. Once this Turkic cavalry has been slain to the last man, dye those bands red with their blood. When this campaign is over, they will be used to honor the people who perished.”

Uderu said nothing, only nodded silently. He bowed to Li Wenyuan once, then turned and left the command tent.

The mighty cavalry force departed the Guazhou front and hurried north toward the place where the Turkic horsemen had been located. As Li Wenyuan had ordered, every rider in the expedition had a white band tied around his left arm. They all knew that in the previous days many civilians had died beneath the iron hooves of the Turkic cavalry, and so they shared a common hatred and remained silent. The only sound that lingered in the air was the dull ring of horseshoes striking the ground.

After the cavalry had thundered past, dust billowed up from the earth and hung in the air for a long time before settling. Under the command of Li Wenyuan and Uderu, the Fourth Legion advanced in a long, dragon-like formation. The head of that dragon pointed toward the Turkic cavalry’s temporary camp, which the scouts had discovered at Yin'ao Gorge.