Chapter 31: The Border Tribes (6)

One hundred paces, eighty paces, fifty paces.
Almost all the soldiers of the Copper Weapons Camp had their hearts in their throats—thousands of reinforcements from Fusi City were charging straight at them!
The ground trembled, and Li Kuo could clearly feel his heart pounding violently.
“Hurry! General Lu is about to give out!”
Chen Xu turned around and urged them on.
“Follow him! March straight through the Tang camp and kill every Tang enemy!”
Meng Chae waved his whip and issued the order.
The Tuyuhun soldiers cheered loudly, cracking their whips as they rode forward. With their overwhelming numerical advantage and a night attack, the Tang enemies had no chance of winning! As long as they charged forward with their comrades, they could turn the Tang soldiers to pulp and earn great glory. At this thought, the soldiers let out cruel laughs—this glory seemed all too easy to obtain.
“Get ready!”
Li Kuo raised his hand, his eyes fixed on the path ahead of the dense forest.
It was getting closer, closer!
Just as Chen Xu’s horse stepped thirty paces beyond the Tang army’s defense line, Li Kuo waved his hand and gave the order.
“Fire!”
A barrage of arrows shot out from the dense forest, forming a tight, dense net that trapped their prey inside.
“Ah!”
Dozens of Tuyuhun soldiers at the front were suddenly attacked by the arrows. Unable to dodge, they were hit and fell from their horses. These arrows had been specially modified by the Tang army’s craftsmen—their tips were curved inward and coated in deadly poison. Even though the Tuyuhun soldiers wore the finest chainmail in Tubo, it was no use against these arrows, killing them instantly.
Li Kuo nocked an arrow and narrowed his eyes, aiming at the middle-aged general wearing a bright red cloak. He must be the commander of these reinforcements. To capture the enemy, one must first capture their leader! With his bow drawn like a full moon and his arrow like a shooting star, there was a swift “whoosh” as the arrow flew through the air straight toward Meng Chae.
“General, be careful!”
Seeing an arrow flying toward Meng Chae, an officer leaped forward and threw his commander to the ground.
Meng Chae was knocked off his horse and was stunned, unable to process what had happened.
“Tang enemies! It’s the Tang enemies! There’s an ambush in the forest!”
The officer shouted loudly, waving his flag to gather the soldiers around him.
“Get off your horses! All of you, get off your horses!”
Seeing that nearly a hundred of their own soldiers had been killed or wounded after a single round of firing by the Tang army, the officer’s eyes turned red as he screamed. “Hide behind your horses! Use them as cover!”

The soldiers were utterly stunned by the sudden turn of events. Hearing the adjutant’s orders, they found them reasonable and quickly dismounted, hiding behind their horses. However, the Tang forces did not change their strategy due to the Tubo reinforcements; another wave of arrows flew toward them. Most of these arrows struck the warhorses, with their dark, sharp tips piercing through the horses’ bodies. The horses cried out in pain, thrashing around in anger and exhaling white vapor from their nostrils.

“Get your bows and arrows and shoot back!” added Meng Chai’e, having recovered from his anger and shock. He couldn’t just sit idly; if they failed to suppress the Tang forces’ firepower and allowed them to keep shooting randomly, their army would soon be reduced to ashes!

It was all because of those damned Tang invaders—he had miscalculated! Meng Chai’e angrily smashed a tree trunk beside him, his eyes filled with fury.

“Get your bows and arrows! Shoot back! Shoot them all back!” the adjutant repeated loudly. They had a clear numerical advantage; as long as they could suppress the Tang forces’ firepower, they could turn the tide!

The Tuyuhun soldiers in Fusi City were mere inexperienced recruits who just waited to die. They had never seen such a battle before. Only upon hearing their commander’s orders did they realize they needed to fight back. Hiding behind their horses, they frantically pulled out their recurve bows, but their trembling arms couldn’t draw the strings taut. Some younger soldiers, in desperation, threw away their bows and burst into tears. The centurion beside them leaned over, cursed loudly, and whipped them with his whip. The soldiers cried out in pain and collapsed to the ground, writhing.

“Useless idiots! If you don’t want the Tang invaders to cut off your heads, shoot back! Show some courage, like the ones you use when fucking women! Stop acting like cowardly women!” the adjutant shouted angrily, pacing back and forth and waving his whip.

One Tuyuhun soldier, about sixteen years old, had his left leg hit by a Tang arrow. He gritted his teeth in pain, breathing heavily. The Tang arrows were poisoned, and although he didn’t die on the spot, he felt intense, stabbing pains spreading through his chest. Trembling, he stood up, pulled out a recurve bow from his backpack under the dim light, and aimed at the dark jungle on the other side. After drawing the bowstring, he no longer had the strength to shoot the arrow. Sweat droplets rolled down his cheeks, and his pale face looked like that of a ghost.

Suddenly, a Tang army armor-piercing arrow with a black tip shot toward his face. The young man trembled violently, not knowing whether to duck down. His pupils dilated sharply as intense pain struck, and his world turned pitch black. He fell faceup, blood streaming from his left eye socket, while an arrow tipped with carved feathers trembled inside it in the wind…

Fear of death finally drove the Tuyuhun soldiers to instinctively shoot the first wave of arrows. But most of them were inexperienced recruits who were shaking like leaves; how could their arrows be accurate or powerful?

The scattered and uncoordinated bone arrows lost much of their force by the time they reached the dense forest. Some slipped off the bushes, while others missed entirely and landed in the grass.

“Get the crossbow! Hurry and get the crossbow!”
Meng Chai suddenly remembered the powerful weapon brought on this expedition and cried out in excitement. This crossbow was a formidable weapon of the Tang army. Had they not captured a Tang army armorer by chance, Meng Chai would never have known such a powerful military bow existed! (Note 1) “Yes, the crossbow! General, you’re wise! I’ll order someone to fetch it right away! In moments, those Tang invaders will be reduced to shreds!”
But suddenly, as if recalling something, his smiling face turned into one of extreme terror, and he could only stammer incoherently.

Meng Chai shook his arm for a long time before his adjutant, voice trembling and crying, said, “It’s over. Everything’s over. Those messengers were disguised as Tang invaders. Except for the one who led the way, they were all at the back of the group!”

Upon hearing this, Meng Chai’s mind exploded like thunder in winter, and he fell faceup to the ground. Indeed, those messengers were disguised as Tang soldiers! If the crossbows were at the back, how could they still be intact? As he lamented, he suddenly remembered something even more terrifying and shouted urgently, “Hurry and mount your horses! Tell everyone to mount up! Charge through at any cost! Otherwise, we’ll all have our heads cut off by the Tang army!”

But it was too late. Fifty Tang cavalrymen appeared like ghosts from the rear of the formation, swinging their swords and slashing at the Tuyuhun soldiers beside them.

Swords flew, heads rolled—the auxiliary army camp at Fusi City had turned into a hellish realm.

Note 1: Crossbow: An ancient bow with mechanical brakes. As recorded in “The Records of the Grand Historian: The Annals of Qin Shi Huang,” “Order the craftsmen to make crossbow arrows, and shoot at anything that gets close.” This shows just how powerful crossbows were.