Chapter 33: Rising Up (II)

“Brothers, let’s seek revenge!”
Li Kuo unleashed the hatred he had suppressed throughout the winter, shouting at the top of his voice.
“For the Great Tang, any man who dares to oppose us must be killed!”
Everything we cherish needs to be protected! All that is good must be defended! When our nation’s dignity is trampled under foreign boots, we must draw our swords; when the Great Tang’s glory is challenged by barbarians, we must shoot our arrows.
“Revenge!”
“Revenge! Kill them all!”
They were all veterans of the Shence Army. After the Battle of the Great Wall Fortress, they harbored an unbreakable hatred toward the Tubo barbarians! All talk of a benevolent empire or friendly neighbors was nothing but nonsense. That night, countless comrades were torn to pieces by trebuchets; that night, many brothers fell beside them, never closing their eyes in death…
They would not accept it—they refused to watch the Tubo people trample over them, over the men of the Great Tang! They wouldn’t become slaves of a conquered nation; they would defend their wives, children, and homes!
So they fought, killed, fought desperately, and won…
Heh, they won! At what cost to so many comrades’ lives? The brothers were grateful to their commander for assigning them the task of intercepting the Tubo barbarians. All they wanted now was revenge!
Perhaps this didn’t fit the image of the great empire, perhaps it tarnished the emperor’s reputation as a kind and friendly ruler, but they only wanted to protect their dignity with their swords!
An eye for an eye, blood for blood! Cruel, true, yet fair! One must pay back what one owes—when the Tubo people raised their knives against the Tang army, they should have known such a day would come! In their eyes, Tubo and Tuyuhun were all the same. They had all captured their villagers, burned their homes! None of those barbarians were good!
One hundred and fifty elite Tang cavalry charged down from the ridge, the wind carrying with it the weight of family hatred and national wrath. Their horses galloped swiftly, and in an instant, the Tang riders caught up with the fleeing Tuyuhun soldiers. Swords were raised, drawing beautiful arcs as streams of blood gushed forth, staining the faces of the Tang soldiers. Killing turned out to be so simple; life turned out to be so worthless. The slightly salty taste of blood in their mouths brought them no disgust—it was the pleasure of killing their enemies, the relief of fulfilling their vow.
“Charge at them! Stop them!”

The adjutant grabbed one of the fugitives by the collar, drew his curved sword, and beheaded him right in front of them. Holding up the bloody head, he shouted loudly in an attempt to intimidate the defeated soldiers. But none of them obeyed him. Two or three hundred Tuoguhun soldiers pushed and kicked each other as they fled backward. Many were knocked down by their comrades and never got up again; the chaotic crowd trampled on their ribs in an instant, turning them into a mess of bloody flesh. “Damn it, stop running! You’re all going to die anyway—fight the Tang invaders!” The adjutant cursed loudly, ordering his personal guards to kill a few more defeated soldiers to establish his authority through violence. Bloody heads appeared before the defeated soldiers. Ironically, they weren’t cut off by the Tang army but by their own comrades! Seeing this, the fleeing soldiers stopped in their tracks and drew their curved swords. They slowly moved forward, their eyes filled with indifference. “That’s right, charge at the Tang invaders! Kill one, gain one; kill two, gain a pair!” The adjutant was pleased to see the effect of using fear as a deterrent. He shouted loudly, trying to turn the defeated soldiers back toward the Tang army. Huh? No—why are these defeated soldiers charging at me? What do they want? Cold sweat broke out on the adjutant’s forehead as he instinctively stepped back. “Wrong, wrong! Go kill the Tang army! Don’t come here! You fools, go kill the Tang army!” “Brothers, these beasts won’t let us live—let’s fight them!” At some point, a Tuoguhun soldier in officer’s uniform shouted, and instantly, the silent crowd responded. “Kill these beasts!” “Kill them!” The adjutant ran away, but it was too late. The defeated soldiers rushed at him, instantly turning him and his guards into pulp. After killing the members of the Da Dao Law Enforcement Team, hundreds of Tuoguhun soldiers scattered in different directions, trying to distract the Tang army. But how could they outrun the lightly armed cavalry? The Tang army could easily cut off a barbarian’s head, throw it into a reward bag, and then calmly turn their horses to chase after another defeated soldier. It was a one-sided massacre—Tuoguhun soldiers without horses were like sheep at the mercy of the Tang army. Blades flew, heads rolled. Everywhere there were severed arms and limbs, intestines and bones scattered across the ground. Blood formed a small stream, flowing slowly southward…

Menchae fell to the ground, staring in terrified confusion as a Tang army general approached him. He had never felt death so closely before—the general, clad in black armor and helmet, held a horizontal sword, its blade already soaked in blood. His gaze was terrifying, like that of a starving black bear or a wolf whose cubs had been taken away! (Note 1) “No, don’t come closer. Don’t come! You can’t kill me. The Tang army doesn’t kill surrendered generals or defeated soldiers.”
Menchae pushed himself backward with his elbow, crawling on his back, uttering slang that Li Kuo couldn’t understand.
“Demon, demon, don’t come! I’m an envoy blessed by Shambhala! You can’t kill me!”
His voice turned whiny as he buried his face in his hands.
“I’m a demon! It’s you all, this world that forced me to become a demon!”
These were Menchae’s last words in this world. The black horizontal sword swung with fierce force, sending a spray of blood into the air. The next moment, his head and body were separated.
Li Kuo neatly threw his head into a reward bag and handed it to a waiting soldier.
“The Tang army doesn’t kill surrendered generals or captives, but I swung this sword only for my brother!”
“Boom!”
A dull thunderclap shattered the silence around them. A silver light, like that of a white dragon, split the sky, illuminating the land as if it were day. A torrential rain fell instantly, with raindrops the size of peas hitting the Tang soldiers’ cheeks, washing away the blood but not the deep hatred.
Once hatred takes root, it only grows more fiercely, nourished by the blood and tears of its own comrades!
At this moment, are the fallen comrades of the Great Wall Fortress and the victims of Kuozhou watching?…
Note 1: It’s a terrifying sight when a wolf’s cubs are taken away—wolves cherish their young deeply. They will track the scent of their cubs to find the hunter and fight to the death to reclaim them.