Chapter 162: First Campaign Against Western Xia, Yumen Pass
Lone smoke rises straight in the great desert, the setting sun round on the long river.
The great desert seemed like a sea of golden desolation, stretching to the horizon without end.
The setting sun hung in the western sky, recklessly pouring out its final rays, majestic yet permeated with endless desolation.
Mad winds howled past, carrying vast yellow sand, emitting a miserable “woo woo” roar.
In this vast, boundless, and monotonous sand sea, two frail figures rode horses, advancing along the Silk Road.
They were gaunt, their clothes ragged, the worn garments covered in patches and sand, soaked with sweat then dried stiff, clinging tightly to their emaciated bodies.
“Elder Brother, they’ve caught up.”
A youth with a slightly childish face said in a hoarse voice.
Looking back, several hundred meters away, more than a dozen Tangut cavalry were slowly closing in on them.
“Hold on a bit longer, it’s almost dark. Then we can hide in the desert, and they won’t find us.”
Yang Shouzheng said in a low voice.
Due to long-term heavy labor and starvation, their bodies were extremely weak and had reached their limit.
Even more terrifying, the war horses beneath them, after a day’s running, had also reached their limit.
The two brothers could only stab the horses’ backs with daggers to spur the war horses to go faster.
His younger brother Yang Shoujing suddenly laughed, blood beading from his cracked lips: “Remember that Lantern Festival?”
“Father took us to stroll through Xingqing Prefecture, and you fell at the sugar painting stall.”
Yang Shouzheng immediately scolded: “Save your strength.”
He naturally understood his younger brother’s meaning; this was a final farewell.
This time, they had reached a life-and-death crisis.
Even if they escaped the pursuers behind, the desert at night was extremely cold, and without adequate clothing or food, they didn’t know if they could last until morning.
So, his younger brother wanted to stay behind to cover their retreat.
“Elder Brother, I can’t make it. You go quickly, I’ll hold them off.”
Yang Shoujing said, his hand gripping the hilt tightly, his youthful face full of ferocity.
“Bastard, our great vengeance is unreported; neither of us can die.” Yang Shouzheng roared in anger.
At this moment, the pursuers behind were getting closer, close enough to clearly see their appearances.
“Yang Shouzheng, you can’t escape.” A Tangut general shouted loudly.
Yang Shouzheng recognized him; his name was Wu Mijin, the overseer of the convict labor camp.
Moreover, this man had been under his father’s command, but after violating military rules and being severely punished by his father, he harbored resentment.
Afterward, when the Yang Family was convicted, his father was killed, and all male laborers were exiled to Dunhuang.
The Yang brothers thus fell into this man’s hands and were continuously manipulated by him.
But not long ago, their youngest brother, a ten-year-old child, was beaten to death alive, the reason being theft.
The two brothers could no longer suppress their anger and resolved to escape.
Taking advantage of this opportunity to repair the city wall at Yumen Pass, they killed the guards, seized two war horses, and fled westward desperately, planning to seek revenge later.
But Wu Mijin had persistently pursued them with men, determined to kill them to be satisfied.
“Wu Mijin, even if I die, I’ll drag you down with me.” Yang Shouzheng crouched on the horse’s back, dodging the arrows behind, and roared in fury.
“Hahaha, Yang Shouzheng, just like your dead ghost father, all you have is a hard mouth.”
“Once I catch you, I’ll smash your mouth.” Wu Mijin laughed.
The Tangut cavalry pursued relentlessly; each had two or even three horses, so their speed was very fast.
While the horses the Yang Shouzheng brothers rode had gone without rest for so long that they were exhausted.
“Second Master, I’m afraid we can’t escape. These dog bastards are chasing too closely.” Yang Shouzheng said with a bitter smile.
Yang Shoujing gritted his teeth, his eyes full of resolve: “Elder Brother, worst case we fight them to the death. We absolutely can’t be captured like this.”
“Even if we die, we’ll drag a few Tangut bastards down with us.”
The Yang Family had originally been a prestigious clan in Western Xia, and their father was a fierce general who had established great military merit for the Imperial Court.
Last year, Tubo people raided north, and the Western Xia Army hastily responded.
But the commander made blunder after blunder on the battlefield, with serious command errors, causing heavy losses to the Western Xia Army.
After the battle, to appease the public anger, this commander, relying on his kinship with the Empress Dowager, shifted all the blame for the defeat onto the deputy general, who was the father of the Yang brothers.
Thus, their father was unjustly killed, and the whole family imprisoned or exiled.
The once glorious Yang Family of Western Xia ended in such a tragic way.
How could the two brothers not harbor hatred toward the Imperial Court, the magnates, and the Tangut people?
Since they couldn’t escape, they would go down together with them.
“It’s a pity my Yang Family’s great vengeance can’t be avenged.” Yang Shouzheng felt grief in his heart, then his face turned ferocious.
He reined in the war horse, gripped the spear, preparing for a desperate fight with the pursuers.
And at that moment, Yang Shoujing beside him suddenly said: “Elder Brother, look.”
“What is that?”
At this time, Yang Shoujing looked ahead with a heavy expression, and Yang Shouzheng followed his gaze.
Under the reflection of the blood-red setting sun, ten cavalry suddenly appeared on a distant sand dune.
Too far to see their faces clearly, only that they wore a kind of white armor.
A flash of astonishment passed through Yang Shouzheng’s eyes, quickly followed by a spark of hope.
Though he didn’t know their identity, they definitely weren’t Tangut cavalry.
Thus, he unhesitatingly led his brother to continue fleeing toward the White Armored Soldiers.
“They’re coming, Squad Leader~”
A White Armored Soldier frowned and said, his gaze turning to the youth in white armor beside him.
He was called Er Dan, a youth from Hexi Fort who grew up with Li Xiao.
But the White Armored Army didn’t keep idlers; every one was an elite carefully selected from all Jin Prefecture Army soldiers.
So, Er Dan becoming a squad leader in the White Armored Army relied on his own ability.
This time in the campaign against Western Xia, Er Dan’s squad was selected as the army’s scouting cavalry.
Mainly to scout for ambushes ahead, if the road conditions allowed the army to pass, where water sources were, where suitable for camping, and so on.
They had just happened to encounter the Yang Shoujing brothers.
“Looks like Xia Kingdom people being pursued by those behind.” Another White Armored Soldier said.
“What do we do? Squad Leader!”
“Should we help them out?” The soldier laughed.
Er Dan sneered coldly, shaking his head lightly: “We don’t know them, why help?”
“But anyway!”
“They’re all Xia Kingdom people, they must know the situation in Dunhuang. Capture them all and interrogate clearly.”
The opponents had only seventeen or eighteen cavalry, but their side had a full ten White Armored Soldiers.
Advantage in our favor!
And right at that moment, the Yang brothers had arrived right in front of them.
They looked up at the sand dune; the sunset’s afterglow shone straight from behind the White Armored Soldiers, the intense light forcing them to squint.
They could only make out ten dark silhouettes, unable to distinguish who they were.
But the chilling aura emanating from Er Dan and the others made the Yang brothers’ hearts shudder involuntarily.
The brothers had grown up in the military camp following their father from childhood, so they naturally understood this was a killing aura forged from long battlefield experience, condensed from blood and enemy corpses.
These ten people were very terrifying.
“Heroes ahead, we two brothers are being pursued by Tangut villains, wronged and entangled, we beg you all to lend a hand!”
His voice echoed in the vast great desert, hoarse and desperate.
Yang Shoujing followed closely, cupping his hands high: “Heroes, our Yang Family is loyal and righteous, yet framed by traitors, family destroyed and people dead.”
“Now we only seek to survive, to avenge and wipe out the shame for our relatives.”
“If you all provide aid, we brothers will surely repay heavily.”
Though Yang Shoujing was young, he was more emotionally intelligent, knowing empty words wouldn’t convince them to help; he had to offer interests as reward.
He understood the principle of having multiple lairs; the Yang Family had also prepared backups in Dunhuang, burying some treasure as capital for future resurgence.
The White Armored Army stood silently on the mountain peak, watching the two brothers; a glint of thought flashed in Er Dan’s eyes.
These two were Western Xia prisoners? And sons of criminal officials?
Then their knowledge of the Xia Kingdom must be deeper than ordinary common people.
They had some utilitarian value.
As for the Tangut pursuers behind, they were people the Jin Prefecture Army wanted to kill anyway.
Thus, Er Dan slowly drew his cavalry saber, saying in a cold voice: “Kill!”
The ten White Armored Soldiers instantly moved, like arrows off the string, charging fiercely down the sand dune; the white cotton armor gleamed coldly in the sunset’s afterglow.
Like a silver flood, they instantly overtook the Yang brothers and swept toward the Tangut pursuers.
The sound of hooves thundered like lightning, breaking the great desert’s silence, the raised dust rising in the sunset.
The Yang brothers watched this scene in shock; flames of hope instantly ignited in their originally despairing eyes.
Yang Shouzheng gripped the spear tightly, veins bulging on the back of his hand, shouting loudly: “Kill~”
The two brothers followed closely behind the White Armored Army, charging at the Tangut cavalry.
Seeing this, Wu Mijin’s face turned ashen instantly.
Cursing this sudden change while shouting to his soldiers: “They have fewer numbers than us.”
“Kill them for me.”
Wu Mijin naively thought that with double the numbers of the White Armored Army, they naturally held the advantage.
Killing the Yang brothers was an order from above; he had to carry it out, or he was done for.
“Loose arrows.”
When both sides charged to about fifty paces, Er Dan and Wu Mijin shouted almost simultaneously.
The whistling of arrows rang out, followed by screams from some Tangut cavalry hit by arrows and falling from their horses.
Arrowheads forged from Hexi Steel by the Hexi military equipment workshop easily pierced the Tangut people’s leather armor.
But when the Tangut arrows landed on the White Armored Soldiers, they were all bounced off.
Unable to penetrate at all.
“What?”
Seeing this, Wu Mijin’s eyes widened instantly, incredulously saying: “How is that possible?”
In the arrow exchange, his side was completely at a disadvantage, losing six or seven men, while the opponents were unscathed; Wu Mijin couldn’t accept it.
Where did these cavalry come from?
Qocho people?
The next second, the White Armored Army had charged right up.
Er Dan gripped the hooked scythe spear, locking onto a Tangut cavalryman, clamping his horse’s flanks; the war horse neighed and charged at the opponent.
That cavalryman panicked upon seeing this, hurriedly raising his spear to counter.
But his spearhead couldn’t pierce Er Dan’s cotton armor at all, while his own chest was instantly pierced by the hooked scythe spear.
“Gurgle~”
Accompanied by the sound of bones grinding, Er Dan withdrew the hooked scythe spear, and the corpse heavily fell from the horse.
The advantage of the hooked scythe spear lay here: the sickle fork ahead could not only hook horse legs and yank enemies off horses.
More importantly, it prevented the spearhead from penetrating too deeply into the enemy body, unable to be pulled out at critical moments.
In just a few breaths, the battle was over.
White Armored Soldiers one-on-one, even one-on-two, relying on cotton armor defense and weapon sharpness, held their own completely.
The Yang brothers charged with fierce killing aura, only to find they were just a dozen steps late and had no chance to strike.
Most Tangut cavalry were killed; only Wu Mijin and two others were knocked off their horses.
They crouched on the ground in terror, begging for mercy.
“This~”
The Yang brothers’ faces were horrified; they had never seen such terrifying cavalry.
Where did they come from?
At this moment, Er Dan slowly turned his head, his cold gaze looking toward the Yang brothers and Wu Mijin et al.
In a low voice, he asked: “You lot, who knows where there’s a water source nearby?”
“Those who know may live.”
Only now did Yang Shouzheng clearly see the true appearance of these devilish cavalry.
Wearing a kind of armor he’d never seen, even their cheeks on both sides were covered.
Fortunately, he could tell they all had Han faces, especially the one who spoke, seemingly the leader, was actually a youth younger than himself.
This greatly shocked Yang Shouzheng.
Meanwhile, Yang Shoujing reacted faster, hurriedly answering: “We know, we know.”
“There’s a small river where we just passed.”
Hearing this, Er Dan finally breathed a sigh of relief.
In desert marches, the most important thing was water sources.
Especially when camping at night, they had to choose a place near water.
This was Er Dan’s task.
“Tonight’s camp has a spot.”
……
Yumen Pass stood at the edge of the great desert, like a lonely sentinel, dividing the Hexi Corridor and the Western Regions into two completely different worlds.
As the saying goes, ‘spring wind does not pass Yumen Pass’.
East of Yumen Pass, though also a vast Gobi, was at least survivable.
But beyond Yumen Pass, it was a true sea of death, the boundless great desert burying countless bones.
The nearest Hami was still over three hundred li away.
Li Xiao’s army, following the Silk Road through the desert, took five days to reach outside Yumen Pass.
The all-cavalry Jin Prefecture Army was bringing over thirty thousand Uyghur infantry, so they moved so slowly.
Along the way, many Uyghur people died of thirst, exhaustion, or illness, but under the threat of death, the survivors gritted their teeth and made it to outside Yumen Pass.
This morning, a blood-red sun slowly rose from the horizon, dyeing the entire sky golden red.
Yumen Pass’s gates slowly opened; merchants leading camels and pulling wagons filed out of the city gate into the vast desert.
A team of garrison soldiers stood at the gate, inspecting the merchants’ goods for contraband.
Only after a few pieces of loose silver appeared in the squad leader’s hand did he nod in satisfaction, letting the merchants go.
“Boss, it’s been two days already. Do you think that Tangut team that went out still hasn’t come back?”
“They wouldn’t have died in the desert, right?”
A young garrison soldier asked curiously.
The squad leader shook his head: “They’re definitely searching for escapees in the desert; maybe they’ll return today.”
Speaking of this, the garrison soldiers became interested.
“I heard the two who escaped this time are sons of a high Imperial Court official.”
“The big official lost a battle, his family confiscated; so miserable.”
“That’s what I say; if they were ordinary prisoners, why make such a fuss to capture them? Just put on a show.”
“I heard these two had some fame in the military before, brave in combat, real men, and Han people too. Such a pity.” A garrison soldier shook his head and sighed.
But as soon as he spoke, the surrounding garrison soldiers all shut their mouths, staring at him.
He realized he’d said the wrong thing and forced a few awkward laughs.
The divide between Han and barbarians in Western Xia was always a problem.
Because when the Tangut founded the country, they were just a small ethnic group; after these years of development, Western Xia’s population was still mostly Han people.
Out of over two million people, Han people numbered about one and a half million, over two-thirds.
The other third were Tangut, Qiang, Tubo, Tuyuhun, Uyghur, and other ethnicities.
Precisely because of this huge population disparity, Western Xia’s rulers were most wary of Han people.
If that garrison soldier’s words were heard by Tangut officials in the city, he wouldn’t die but would be skinned alive.
After all, it wasn’t just about escapees, but ethnic opposition, the most sensitive issue.
“Alright, duty time now; no more idle chatter, guard the gate properly.” The squad leader saw another merchant caravan arriving and cut off the topic.
Soon after, the squad leader’s ears twitched slightly, his gaze instinctively turning outside the city.
Endless yellow sand, no end in sight, but he seemed to hear a strange sound.
The next second, the squad leader’s eyes narrowed: “What is that?”
In the desert, a black dot suddenly appeared.
“Looks like a cavalry team; could it be that Tangut team returning?” A young garrison soldier with good eyesight said.
But the squad leader frowned tightly: “No, those Tangut cavalry didn’t have this many people.”
As time passed, the cavalry team’s appearance became clearer.
In an instant, the squad leader’s expression turned utterly terrified, his face pale, shouting loudly: “Bad news.”
“Enemies.”
“Quickly close the gate, report to the general.”
The garrison soldiers reacted, hurriedly closing the wooden city gate.
Then they rang the bell on the city wall.
“Ding ding ding ding ding~”
The urgent bronze bell rang, stunning people near the gate.
Yumen Pass hadn’t seen war for many years; people here had almost forgotten what the bell signified.
Only when the squad leader and others shouted did they suddenly realize.
“Enemies, enemies are coming.”
“Quick, to the city wall to defend against the enemy.”
Hearing the squad leader’s shout, some local residents of Yumen Pass found it absurd.
Yumen Pass was the pass to the Western Regions; beyond was boundless great desert—who would attack Yumen Pass?
Kingdom of Qocho?
But Western Xia and the Kingdom of Qocho had never warred; their bordering areas were desolate wastes with no value to contest.
The common people subconsciously thought the squad leader was talking nonsense.
But when a low rumble accompanied by chaotic shouts rang out, the city’s common people began to panic.
“What’s going on?”
“Real enemies are coming?”
“Where from? Qocho people?”
The common people were terrified, and Yumen Pass’s garrison commander finally rushed out in panic from somewhere.
Climbing the city wall for a look, his face instantly turned pale with terror.
Jin Prefecture iron cavalry surged like a galloping steel giant dragon across the vast great desert.
The iron cavalry thundered, shaking the land slightly.
When the vanguard cavalry neared Yumen Pass, the raised dust blotted out the sky, like a yellow storm.
The originally blue sky was instantly swallowed by dust, visibility dropping sharply.
The garrison soldiers on the wall widened their eyes, terrified at the scene.
They gripped their rusted, notched weapons tightly, bodies trembling uncontrollably.
The ceaseless iron cavalry figures emerging from the rolling dust filled them with despair.
“Th-this, what are these people?”
The Yumen Pass garrison commander was terrified; this scene had him shaking in fear.
Though Yumen Pass was the last pass of the Great Wall, due to no wars for years.
Its military function had severely degenerated into a post station for merchants, providing lodging and rest.
Moreover, passing merchants paid tolls, a hefty income, so the garrison commander’s purpose here was to make money.
But no one told him he might have to fight.
“Quick, quick~”
“Quickly go to Dunhuang to report: Yumen Pass under strong enemy siege, request reinforcements!”
“Numbers, numbers about, about a hundred thousand~” the garrison commander said in a trembling voice.
Soon, massive Jin Prefecture iron cavalry had completely surrounded Yumen Pass.
The cavalry formed neat ranks, spears like a forest, forming an impregnable steel rampart.
War horse neighs, soldier shouts, armor clashes rose and fell; the wall’s garrison soldiers trembled in terror, faces full of fear and helplessness.
Clash of metal, iron cavalry rampaging.
In the army, Li Xiao in full cotton armor rode a tall war horse, calmly surveying Yumen Pass ahead.
Completely different from imagination: Yumen Pass was ten meters high, but the walls were rammed earth, eroded by wind and sand, surface mottled and worn.
Due to no wars for many years, Yumen Pass hadn’t been repaired in a long time.
Inside and outside the pass, yellow sand everywhere, not a blade of grass; only a few stubborn poplars swayed in the wind, utterly desolate and ancient.
Nowhere near a great city like Gaochang; at best a small western county town.
“Spring wind does not pass Yumen Pass.”
“But I, Li Xiao, today must behold the scenery inside the pass.
