Chapter Ninety-Four: Why?

The collapse of the Xiongnu cavalry was not due to any lack of fighting strength, but because the sudden appearance of Han heavy cavalry had been utterly unforeseen. In the face of something powerful and unknown, fear rises all too easily, and for soldiers, once morale begins to waver, defeat is only a matter of course.

The collision between more than three thousand Han troops and three thousand Xiongnu horsemen did not last long before it entered its final stage. More than half the Xiongnu cavalry had been wiped out, and a little less than half fled.

On the boundless plain of the steppe, it was no great matter for cavalry that had not been surrounded to save their lives by flight. Since the Xiongnu horsemen were intent on escape, Qin Cheng sent his light cavalry after them for a while, then withdrew his men.

In this battle, more than fifteen hundred enemies were slain and two or three hundred captured. The leader of this Xiongnu cavalry force, Ashina, was also beheaded amid the chaos. Compared with the losses of the Xiongnu, the Han cavalry’s casualties of only four or five hundred seemed exceedingly small.

While the battlefield was being cleared, Li Guang looked over the scene before him and felt wonderfully buoyant. The gloom that had hung over him for more than ten days vanished in an instant, and a triumphant smile spread across his weathered face. He said to Qin Cheng, “After all these twists and turns, victory has finally been ours. The frustration of these last days is gone, and today I have at last vented the anger in my chest! With cavalry such as this in Shanggu, the Xiongnu will no longer have the means to swagger before us. Just thinking of it is enough to make a man stand tall! I have fought the Xiongnu all my life, and never before has it felt so satisfying!”

He paused, then looked at Qin Cheng with eyes full of admiration and a trace of relief. “Qin Cheng, you truly are a first-rate deputy commander. I will admit that before this, I had my doubts about developing both heavy cavalry and light cavalry in the army. But after this battle, my heart is finally at ease.”

Li Guang was stirred to the depths of his heart, but how could Qin Cheng not be equally exhilarated? To see the army he had built with his own hands defeat foreign foes and preserve a homeland—his feelings at that moment could easily be imagined. And yet Qin Cheng did not allow himself to relax completely, because he knew that this war was not yet over. It was no good to rejoice too early; what mattered most was to be the one smiling at the end.

So he steadied himself and said, “The power of heavy and light cavalry does not end here. If they can be trained for another year or two and taken to the battlefield a few more times to temper them, their fighting strength will surely grow even greater. As for this war right now, we still cannot say we have already won.”

Li Guang nodded slightly at Qin Cheng’s words, his tone calming. “You came racing back from the desert, so the Xiongnu pursuit should not be far behind.”

Qin Cheng looked at the battlefield, now already cleared, and smiled easily. “Even if the pursuers arrive now, it will no longer matter.”

Following Qin Cheng’s gaze, Li Guang looked toward the Han cavalry already drawn up in formation, and his expression was one of utter confidence. “Indeed.”

Yixue'er was furious.

Especially when she saw the several hundred cavalrymen who had escaped from Ashina’s command return in flight, her face darkened to the brink of fury. She had to draw several deep breaths before she could barely hold herself back from lashing out. In a voice as cold as ice, she ordered the more than four thousand Xiongnu horsemen to continue south.

The returning cavalry naturally described to Yixue'er the terror of the Han heavy cavalry, but she dismissed it as no more than an excuse made by these remnants to excuse their own cowardice. After all, she had never personally seen heavy cavalry on this expedition, and had no real conception of what they were, so she could not possibly imagine their ferocity.

Yixue'er had led her forces southward on this campaign, and from the more than ten thousand men at the beginning, only five or six thousand now remained. Perhaps even she herself did not fully understand how she had lost so many soldiers and officers. What she had once considered a flawless stratagem had ended in failure just as she believed success was within her grasp. Every step had been taken in earnest, and yet every step was equally baffling.

So Yixue'er did not choose to withdraw at once. Instead, she pressed farther south, for one knot in her mind remained untied. If that knot could not be unraveled, she might come to suspect that all the strategies and tactics she had studied in the Central Plains over so many years were nothing more than the moon reflected at the bottom of a well.

When Qin Cheng saw Yixue'er again, both sides had several thousand men behind them, staring at each other from a distance of two hundred paces.

Yixue'er had already lost half her force. Though the numerical gap between the two armies was still substantial, it was no longer as overwhelming as before. Moreover, with two thousand near-heavy cavalry at his back, Qin Cheng had no fear at all of Yixue'er and her five or six thousand fierce Xiongnu riders.

When Yixue'er had sped all the way here and saw the three thousand Han cavalry arrayed in readiness behind Qin Cheng, she did not immediately order a charge.

Having learned of Ashina’s defeat, Yixue'er’s continued advance southward was never meant to end in a desperate death struggle with the Han army.

Besides, even if Yixue'er were confident she could swallow the more than three thousand Han troops before her, she knew that in such a face-to-face clash her own losses would be severe.

Thus the two armies stood off against each other across a hundred paces.

The Han cavalry lifted their chins high, as though looking down upon the Xiongnu horsemen from that hundred-pace distance, and in their hearts pride had already begun to take root.

They were an army of victory, and a victorious army, facing those it had defeated, was naturally proud.

They had earned the right to be proud.

For them, this was the confidence born of finally shattering an enemy that had pressed them hard for sixty or seventy years.

So they held themselves with lofty, haughty bearing.

A bodyguard rode out from within Yixue'er’s formation and came to the empty ground between the two armies. Then he bellowed at the top of his lungs, “The Great Xiongnu commander requests General Qin to come forward and speak!”

Li Guang and Qin Cheng exchanged a glance, and Qin Cheng rode out from the front of the formation.

“It has been many days. I trust you are well,” Qin Cheng said with a teasing smile to Yixue'er.

Yixue'er shot him a glare and went straight to the point. “Last time, Li Guang led his troops in pursuit from Yangzigou all the way here, while you yourself took the initiative to plunge deep into my desert. Were you so certain that I had prepared a trap for you?”

“Certain,” Qin Cheng said. Seeing that she did not quite believe him, he added, “At least from the moment I learned that your night raid on Yangzigou had failed and that you had withdrawn north, I was certain of it.”

“Why?” Yixue'er asked coldly.

In truth, that was the question she most wanted answered. She had believed her scheme to be watertight, and there was no reason for the Han army to have fallen into it. Yet in the end, the Han forces had still evaded her ambush, leaving her with nothing and costing her many men instead.

“Why?” Qin Cheng said, his brow lifting slightly as he spoke slowly. “Because from the very beginning, I never believed it.”

Yixue'er stared at him in a daze, as though she did not understand, and as though she were waiting for him to continue.

“From the start, you wanted to make us think that this southern advance involved only a little more than two thousand men, divided into five small detachments. But don’t you think that the more you act that way, the more you reveal your true purpose?”