Chapter Eighty-Eight: The Age of Heroes

Measured by the latitudes of later ages, the thousand-odd li from the Qian Mulberry City of Shanggu Commandery to the north amounted to nearly eight or nine degrees of latitude, and the difference in temperature brought by so much separation was naturally immense. When Qin Cheng and the others launched their midnight assault on the Xiongnu tribe, they had not felt the cold; but by the break of dawn, the chill brought by that difference in latitude was enough to make even seasoned soldiers shiver to the bone.

To ride a thousand li in a sudden strike, plunge deep into the desert, and kill and win glory in the Xiongnu’s own nest—such a feat, aside from Qin Cheng, no other Han soldier had dared even imagine before. And the victory of a surprise attack was itself of incalculable value in lifting morale. Of the two thousand light cavalry, a little over a hundred had been lost in last night’s fighting, while the actual tally of severed heads reached eight hundred and thirty-nine, including both soldiers and Xiongnu civilians.

The tribal chief at the end had escaped with several dozen men by relying on his familiarity with the terrain and the reckless ferocity of a breakaway charge. Watching that chief vanish into the night, Qin Cheng did not pursue far. As he reined in his horse and looked back at the sea of flames consuming the Xiongnu tribe, a surge of heroic pride could not help but rise in his heart. In his former life, Qin Cheng had seen his share of the world, but those had been sordid struggles in the underworld. Even when he won, the pleasure could never compare to what he felt now.

Why should a man not wear a keen blade at his waist and take back the fifty states beyond the passes?

How many men in later ages had great ambitions in their hearts and plans for governing the land and securing peace, yet spent their entire lives only running themselves ragged for a house and a car, accomplishing nothing? Even Qin Cheng, in his former life, had spent more than ten years dreaming a magnificent dream of serving in the army and repaying the country, only to end up entering the underworld in the end. By comparison, to be born in the Han Dynasty, an age of heroes like Qin Cheng, even a common man could rely on valor and wisdom to seize a position above ten thousand others and achieve unparalleled merit for state and people. And in later ages? Without money or background, there was no chance of making much of a mark in politics, let alone leading several thousand iron cavalry to drive out the foreign tribes.

Lend me an age of heroes, and I will return you a dream of a great nation.

At that moment, Qin Cheng thought thus, his eyes blazing with the fire of war, his right hand gripping the long blade tightly.

Above him, the stars shone in their appointed places.

After the battle ended, the army cleared the field, gathered the spoils, and the accompanying military physicians hastened to treat the wounded and reduce the losses. Then Qin Cheng first sent men back to report to Li Guang, and afterward ordered the soldiers, who had scarcely rested for a day and a night and had just fought a battle, to sleep.

At daybreak, the army set off at full speed for Shanggu.

The Xiongnu cavalry in Shanggu would naturally fear that Qin Cheng would take advantage of the fact that many of the left-wing Wise Prince’s tribes were thinly defended and strike them with Han troops, forcing them to hurry back to aid the west. Qin Cheng, for his part, had to leave this strange and perilous desert as quickly as possible.

The desert, after all, was unfamiliar ground to the Han army. If Shan Jia had not recognized the general direction this time, Qin Cheng might not have been able to lead the light cavalry to such a successful strike. Even so, the soldiers’ admiration for Qin Cheng had risen to a new height. Therefore Qin Cheng had to return to Han territory as quickly as possible, while trying his best to avoid meeting the Xiongnu cavalry returning from the north along the way.

In fact, after leaving three thousand cavalry behind to deal with Li Guang, Yi Xueer had divided the remaining six thousand cavalry into three routes and sent them northward to encircle the area. At the same time, she made full use of the Xiongnu cavalry’s advantage in long-range reconnaissance through roaming patrols, intending to intercept the Han cavalry that had raided the desert. Her orders were clear: if any one of the three routes encountered the Han cavalry, they need not fight to the death. They only had to cling to the Han troops tightly, never allowing them to flee back to Shanggu, while immediately sending messengers to contact the other two routes. She sought, above all else, to have three routes or at least two routes converge with overwhelming superiority and destroy the Han cavalry in one stroke within the desert.

Yi Xueer, who understood Shanggu’s military strength rather well, had already calculated that the Han cavalry coming on this desert raid could not exceed two thousand. Her previous head-on clash with Li Guang at Sheep Head Town had already given her a sense of the matter. Although the Xiongnu riders who had fled from the desert to the Shanggu camp to report had greatly exaggerated the number and prowess of the Han raiders, such evasions of responsibility would not deceive Yi Xueer, nor would they throw off her judgment.

So Yi Xueer still had a fair degree of confidence that she could leave the Han cavalry who had raided the desert there forever, though exactly how much confidence could amount to was something only heaven knew.

As long as my roaming patrol finds you, you are finished!

Yi Xueer, leading two thousand elite Xiongnu cavalry on the way back, stared fixedly to the north and secretly ground her teeth.

That “you” could only mean Qin Cheng.

It could only be Qin Cheng.

Yi Xueer’s scheme was brilliant, and in truth events did unfold just as she had expected, though the details changed somewhat.

Qin Cheng had also considered the possibility of being intercepted by Xiongnu cavalry during the withdrawal, which was why, after yesterday’s great battle, he had ordered the soldiers to sleep in one stretch, so as to restore their spirits and have the strength to respond to sudden developments.

As for returning to Shanggu Commandery this time, Qin Cheng had not failed to consider passing through Dai Commandery or Yuyang Commandery, which would indeed have allowed him to avoid being blocked by the returning Xiongnu cavalry. However, according to Han military regulations, for the soldiers of one commandery to leave their own jurisdiction and enter another’s territory required deployment under a tiger tally. If Qin Cheng rashly appeared in Dai Commandery or Yuyang Commandery, he would be violating military law. Though there had been precedents for emergency measures to be taken in urgent circumstances, Qin Cheng, coming from a later age, also knew Emperor Wu’s temperament. On such matters of overstepping boundaries, especially military overstepping, Liu Che deeply detested it. Take Wei Qing, for instance: so deeply trusted by Liu Che was this general that in those years, under the original course of history, he had once moved the Tiger and Mighty Guard without a tiger tally in order to guard against Xiongnu cavalry riding down from the mountain road to attack the emperor while Liu Che was directing the campaign from Ganquan Palace. As a result, Liu Che bore him a fierce grudge and directly stripped him of his military authority.

Qin Cheng did not want to work so hard to win some gains in the desert with his two thousand light cavalry, only to provoke Liu Che’s reverse scale and end up covered in mud. So even though going straight back to Shanggu carried some risk, Qin Cheng had no choice but to make it.

Of course, if he truly met Xiongnu cavalry, Qin Cheng still had a backup plan.

Thus, when the roaming scouts sent out ahead returned to report that Xiongnu cavalry had been discovered in front, Qin Cheng showed not the slightest panic. He knew very well that since his scouts had found the enemy, the enemy’s scouts must also have found him. In other words, the next battle was unavoidable.

But when the scouts informed Qin Cheng that the opposing force numbered only two thousand, Qin Cheng even smiled in satisfaction.

Two thousand against two thousand. Fair enough.

But for Han light cavalry whose combat strength had not yet fully taken shape, how to utterly defeat the Xiongnu cavalry ahead while ensuring they would not be pinned down by the enemy was also a severe problem.

“Ji Zhu, Qin Qingzhi, take orders!” Qin Cheng said. “You two are to lead the army and meet the enemy. Execute the Third Contingency Plan!”

“Liu Mu, Le Yi, take orders. Lead the main force and move left at speed!”

If nothing unexpected happens, there will be three chapters tomorrow. If something unexpected does happen, well, there will still be three chapters.