Chapter Eighteen: The Formidable Iron Cavalry-Bone Grafting(Dominance)

"General, you go first! I’ll cover the rear!" The captain of the bodyguard squad, fighting alongside Li Guang and his detachment of Han cavalry, shouted to him.

"Enough nonsense! In all my years and countless battles, when have I, Li Guang, not led from the front? How could I ever abandon my men and flee alone?" Li Guang bellowed as he fought fiercely.

"General, you are the commander. If anything happens to you, what will become of the thousands of our garrison soldiers? Please, lead the troops to retreat! I swear I will not let these Xiongnu advance a single step!" The captain pleaded anxiously.

"That’s right, father, you should withdraw first. I’ll stay behind with Captain Zhang!" Even Li Gan, at this moment, showed rare resolve and courage.

"Silence, all of you! One more word and I’ll have you court-martialed!" Li Guang thundered, then paused and called out, "Where is the cavalry commandant?"

"No one knows where the commandant is, General. What do you command?" The pale-faced squire at his side, sword in hand, shouted over the din.

"Find the cavalry commandant at once! Order him to hold the mountain pass where we entered. At no cost must we let the Xiongnu take it, until our entire force has retreated through!" Li Guang directed.

"Yes, sir!" The squire answered, wheeled his horse, and sped off.

...

Qin Cheng, who had recently been promoted from infantry to cavalry, now rode a steed seized from the Xiongnu, charging across the battlefield with confidence. With the army standard in one hand and the reins in the other, he did not follow the main force in retreat but, flanked by Dong Chu, Wu Daliang, and others, rode straight to Li Guang’s side.

As the commander-in-chief, Li Guang was not hard to find.

"General, here is the army standard!" Qin Cheng galloped up, skewering a Xiongnu cavalryman off his horse with the flagpole, and called to Li Guang.

He did not bring the standard to claim merit but to show the rear-guard that Li Guang had not abandoned them—he remained with them to the last. This was essential for morale, for the fate of the entire army’s retreat hinged on these men.

"Good!" Li Guang bellowed with excitement as he saw the standard. "I hereby appoint you the new company commander—bear the army standard!"

"Yes, sir!" Qin Cheng answered, barely allowing himself to feel the thrill of fighting beside Li Guang before plunging back into the fray.

At that moment, a cavalryman cried out, "General, too many Xiongnu are behind us—our soldiers cannot hold them!"

Li Guang spurred his horse, cutting down several Xiongnu, and shouted, "Send the order—cavalry are to fight to the death! Not one step back, not until the last man falls! Protect the retreat at all costs!"

"Yes, sir!"

"The general commands: Cavalry, fight to the death! Hold your ground to the last man!"

...

As the messengers galloped across the field, Li Guang’s order reached every Han cavalryman. Far from despair, a fierce and wild resolve kindled in their hearts, making their blows all the more relentless.

Their hatred for the Xiongnu had long since seeped into their very bones. Sixty years of humiliation and suppression were now unleashed in a torrent more violent than any flood, fearless and unstoppable.

Fight to the death—this was now the only thought in every Han cavalryman’s mind. They did not wish for death, but they never feared it.

The carnage on the battlefield entered its second, bloodiest stage.

...

The last of the chariots, still intact, rampaged through the Xiongnu lines, supporting the cavalry’s desperate defense. On both flanks, the Han cavalry tenaciously held off the Xiongnu riders trying to break through or encircle. Shouts, screams, and the clash of steel filled the air; blood stained the sky red. Every advance the Xiongnu made cost them dearly.

When the light infantry reached the mountain pass first, they found it already the site of a brutal clash between Han cavalry and the Xiongnu left marquis.

"Archers, ready!"

With the light infantry commandant’s order, the remaining archers quickly formed ranks.

"Draw bows! Notch arrows!"

"Release!"

Hundreds of iron arrows tore into the massed Xiongnu cavalry blocking the pass, wreaking havoc.

"Draw bows! Notch arrows!"

"Release!"

Several volleys later, the pressure on the hard-pressed Han cavalry was suddenly relieved. With fewer than three hundred left, they finally punched a hole through the pass.

Heavier infantry and the chariot troops soon arrived. Working with the archers, the Han cavalry began to hold off the Xiongnu reinforcements.

Under their officers’ commands, the heavy infantry and chariot troops rushed into the forested mountain road.

"General, the pass is ours—let’s withdraw quickly!" the bodyguard captain called to Li Guang.

"Let the infantry go first. Spread my order: Archers, prepare to ambush at Eagle’s Mouth!"

"Yes, sir!"

...

"General, most of the infantry have withdrawn. We must go now!"

"You go first. I’ll cover the rear!"

"General!"

"Obey orders! The army standard stays with me—we’ll hold them!"

"Yes, sir!"

...

After the heavy infantry and chariot troops withdrew into the forest road, the chariots, by Li Guang’s command, followed. Then the light infantry, and lastly the cavalry, with Qin Cheng and others alongside Li Guang as the final rear-guard.

Everyone hurried toward Eagle’s Mouth, five li away.

Eagle’s Mouth was a particularly narrow stretch of the mountain road, its length about thirty meters but less than three meters wide—so tight that even the chariots had to pull in their polearms. This was precisely why Li Guang had chosen it as the archers’ ambush point.

...

As the noonday sun neared the horizon, the last of the cavalry thundered into the mountain road. Among the final dozen riders, standard-bearer Qin Cheng and Li Guang were present.

To cover the retreat, nearly two thousand cavalry had been reduced to fewer than two hundred, every one of them wounded; even Li Guang’s armor was soaked in blood from countless cuts and arrow wounds.

These few remaining riders, galloping hard, loosed arrows behind them as they fled. In the final stretch of five li, only a dozen of the fifty who followed Li Guang made it to Eagle’s Mouth.

"The general is here! The general is here! Archers, ready!"

The light infantry commandant’s anxious face broke into a wild smile as he ordered the archers to prepare to cover them.

Qin Cheng, riding just behind Li Guang, still had an iron arrow lodged in his back, but his armor had spared him serious harm. Still, the archer who had managed to pierce his armor was a formidable foe—likely the Xiongnu Left Marquis, as he recalled.

Seeing the narrow Eagle’s Mouth ahead, Qin Cheng could not help but breathe a silent sigh of relief.

Damn it, my first battle and I almost died—what a close call, he thought.

"Ah!" Just twenty paces from Eagle’s Mouth, a scream sounded behind him. Qin Cheng’s heart leapt, but he did not look back. At such a crucial moment, he dared not be careless; many people fail in the final step before success, and he would not make that mistake. He knew without looking that another Han cavalryman had been shot from his horse by the Xiongnu close behind. That had been the pattern all the way.

"Release!"

At the commandant’s order, hundreds of archers hidden among the rocks on either side of Eagle’s Mouth loosed their arrows in a deadly volley. The pursuing Xiongnu riders at the front fell in heaps, horses and men tumbling over one another.

"Block the road with chariots!"

Li Guang, bursting through the pass, did not even dismount as he shouted his command.

"Yes, sir!"

The few remaining chariots were quickly placed to block the narrow ten-meter stretch of Eagle’s Mouth.

"General!" The Han soldiers who had retreated to this point stood as one when they saw Li Guang return safely. Even their bloodied faces shone with tears of relief.

Li Guang dismounted and slowly looked around at the survivors. Of the five thousand who had set out, barely fifteen hundred remained. The cavalry had been nearly annihilated.

Yet the faces of the survivors showed no joy or sense of luck—behind every tear-streaked, bloodied visage burned a heart full of defiance.

As Li Guang looked at these men—covered in blood, their clothing in tatters, their bodies battered—his heart knotted with grief. His throat turned to stone, and tears nearly welled from his aged eyes.

When they had set out, five thousand strong, every man had been full of vigor and hope, eager to prove himself and avenge past humiliations. After this bitter fight, they had been reduced to this wretched, battered remnant. So many had fallen, their bodies left to the wilds, sacrifices to a lost battle.

As a general, to return with so few of his men and not as a victorious army—could there be a greater regret or failure?

"What? Daliang didn’t make it in?" Just as Li Guang was lost in sorrow, a shout of alarm sounded behind him.