Chapter Eighty-Eight: Marching Forward

Goro! While Liu Ji was watching his men clear the battlefield, he was suddenly grabbed and hugged so hard that, in this age, such fervent greetings were rare; strictly speaking, it was a frontier custom.

But who had time to care about that now? He did not need to turn around to know who it was, and warmth stirred in his heart. His mouth, however, was anything but polite.

"Too much strength. If I hadn't been killed in battle, you'd have gone and killed me yourself."

Yang Yu laughed heartily, but did not release him at once. Instead he gave him another hard embrace, then grasped his shoulder armor and forced him to face him.

"They say your life is too hard to be spent so easily. This sort of trick had to be your idea. You had me worried for nothing."

"Human schemes cannot outmatch Heaven's. To live through it was sheer luck."

Liu Ji said this with a faint expression, patting his hand. Seeing him squarely now, Yang Yu was startled. The brilliant armor on Liu Ji's body had been specially ordered by Feng Changqing to be made with materials fit for a regional governor's rank, far sturdier than ordinary armor and therefore much better at protection. Yet now...

The shoulder piece he had been supporting had been cut almost through on one side, left hanging by only a short strip; had it not been bound by straps, it would already have fallen away. Worse still was the armor over his body. The once neat, tightly packed iron scales were shattered and scattered, and the breast guard had been deeply caved in. Still, that was one thing; armor existed to shield the body, and damage to armor was better than damage to flesh.

On close inspection, there were several unobtrusive dark spots in his clothing. Looking more carefully, they were all broken arrow shafts, and in some places dark blood had already seeped through. Yang Yu hurriedly let go.

"You've been hit? Are you all right?"

"I won't die."

Liu Ji still wore that same expression. One knew one's own body best; all those arrows had struck where the scales had fallen away, penetrating the inner layer of oxhide. Fortunately, the force had not been great, and they had not gone in deep. At the moment the pain was a dull ache laced with numb itching, and the bleeding should already have been brought under control.

Those were only the visible wounds. In such a dense battle, he was no immortal; how could he have come through unscathed?

With armor this solid, even he had not been able to avoid injury, so the condition of his subordinates could well be imagined. Yang Yu stood beside him and silently looked at the Tang bodies that had already been cleared away.

The Tang soldiers who had crossed the river numbered only a little over one hundred fifty. Adding the more than thirty men from Dugu Li, fewer than eighty could still stand now, and nearly every one of them was wounded. Just as Yang Yu arrived, Liu Ji had closed the eyes of the man behind him, a sturdy man from Hedong who carried the banner.

With their backs to the river and pressed to the edge of ruin, these men had not collapsed; instead, they had erupted with unparalleled fighting spirit, firmly held the riverbank, and by their magnificent showing had crushed the Tibetan assaults time and again. Otherwise, how could a few siege carts and a few flying ropes possibly have driven them back?

Around this tiny stronghold, the corpses of Tibetan infantry lay stacked layer upon layer. They too had fought as men prepared to die, trampling over the bodies of their own brothers to launch desperate assaults. Facing Tang soldiers armed to the teeth, it often became a matter of exchanging life for injury. In the face of such slaughter, who could say that crossing the river meant certain victory?

Only at this moment did Yang Yu suddenly feel that Goro's conduct was not without reason. A man who can fight has the right to be arrogant.

The tally of the battle's results was handled by the army clerk, and since everything had happened right before their eyes, there was no room for dispute. Among all the corpses, apart from a small number shot down from across the river, the rest were all counted as kills belonging to this Tang force that had crossed over. Dugu Li and the others did not count as part of the roster, so naturally they were not included in the tally.

The final count came to more than seven hundred enemy dead, nearly forty percent of the enemy infantry. The credit for the assault could not be denied, and the merit gained in open battle was equally beyond question. No one could help but be convinced. When the news was announced, Zhang Wujia, Xu Guangjing, and the other veteran soldiers who were being bandaged all let out a breath of relief. No one wished to spill his blood only to have the merit stolen by someone else.

That was the advantage of following Liu Ji. Their immediate superior was the master of their own garrison commander, and the overall commander of the camp was as good as a future father-in-law. Who would dare reach for hard-won battlefield merit?

As for Liu Ji himself, besides the heads he had taken, he also had the merit of giving counsel. That was another matter entirely. The victory memorial sent to the court would surely be embroidered into a splendid tale. Still, it was not yet time for celebration, because the main Tibetan force had not been destroyed.

Like his men, once the army physician crossed the river, Liu Ji had the armor removed with their help and had the arrowheads embedded in his flesh pulled out. When he was struck, he had not felt much; only now did the pain make itself known.

"Not a moment can be wasted now. We must pursue at once. Hiss..."

Drawing in a sharp breath, his tone remained unyielding. Feng Changqing hesitated, glanced at Duan Xiushi, and the latter, who was in charge of reconnaissance, needed accurate intelligence.

Duan Xiushi closed the merit register in his hand and handed it to one of his subordinates, then looked at Liu Ji and asked, "Why?"

"Xidazang never intended to make a last stand at Po-Yi River. He did this only to lure us into chasing after him." Liu Ji gritted his teeth through the pain and patiently analyzed the matter for them. Yet as soon as he said it, several commanders were left at a loss.

Feng Changqing's face darkened like water. This was exactly what he had feared. Do not press a cornered enemy—especially when he was not yet cornered. The man had always kept a fresh force of about three thousand. Who could know whether he was waiting for them to pursue and then springing an ambush halfway?

"He is plotting against us, and we are plotting against him as well. With a mere three thousand men, he cannot strike directly at us. Therefore, from here to the city of Herbulol, there should be no danger. Our pursuit is not to catch him—that is impossible—but to drive him away and strengthen the loyalty of the people of Brok."

"So you mean the Tibetans still have other troops hidden somewhere?" Feng Changqing slowly caught the meaning.

"That is certain. My subordinate's reconnaissance with Yang Huzi touched their nerves, and that is why they struck so ruthlessly. Whatever they are trying to conceal, it can only be military strength."

Liu Ji paused briefly, enduring another wave of pain, then went on. "The faster we move, the more he will think his scheme has succeeded. The pursuing force must make a great show of it, so that they can see us at a glance. But Herbulol City should serve as the boundary; once we pass there, we must stop."

His advice was finished; whether they heeded it was another matter. Yet after this battle, Feng Changqing, Duan Xiushi, Tian Zhen, Yang He, and the other seasoned generals took his words far more seriously. After telling him to rest and recover properly, they departed.

Once the bandaging had been completed, Liu Ji looked around. That brat Yang Yu had somehow vanished. He waved over Dugu Li, who was standing at a distance.

Seeing the other man's cautious, humble manner, Liu Ji did not waste words and went straight to the point. "You did what you were told, so I will keep my word. You have two choices; see which suits you."

Dugu Li lowered his head, afraid of missing a single word.

"First, remain here. Everything I promised you will be yours, the village will be exempt from taxes for three years, and it will be exempt from military conscription for three years. I can still make that decision."

Just as Dugu Li's eyes lit up, the words that followed made him hesitate at once.

"Second, move to Little Brok. The conditions will be the same. As for the reason... you killed so many people today, and some of them may have been from nearby villages. It would be hard to say whether their kin will bear a grudge."

When he finished, Liu Ji patted his shoulder and limped toward his men. Tang soldiers' wound medicine was unbearable; it hurt like the devil, even more than the arrows of the Tibetans.