Taiheiki

Chapter 79 Victory
The crossbowmen were at the forefront. Behind them, soldiers calmly nocked their arrows, their shafts swinging at their waists. Behind them were rows of spears, interspersed with a few wolf-whips, which looked a bit dazzling.

"Begin!" Wei Cong nodded to Huang Ping, who stood by. He assumed the role of messenger. As the horn sounded, the crossbowmen began firing at the enemy before them. The hissing of arrows piercing the air was drowned out by the blast. Wei Cong watched as arrows landed on the heads of the barbarians. Few of them wore armor, and only a few had shields. Countless were struck instantly, and many fell to the ground, their cries turning to howls. By then, a second volley of arrows had already begun to fall. The archers drew a third arrow from their quivers and nocked their bowstrings.

Under the volley of archers, the barbarians' formation inevitably became chaotic, and some even retreated. Some rebels also drew their bows to fight back, but neither the number nor the quality of the arrows could compare with Wei Cong's army. More importantly, almost all of Wei Cong's soldiers wore a set of linen armor. At this distance, few arrows could penetrate their helmets and armor.

"The thieves are wavering!" Zhao Yannian whispered.

"Yes!" Wei Cong nodded: "Beat the drums, march forward!"

With the rhythmic beat of drums, the flags began to tilt forward, signaling the attack. Soldiers sheathed their bows, laid down their spears, and began to march forward to the rhythm of the drums, as they had been trained to do.

"Go, go!" With his rich experience, the rebel leader knew that this was the key to victory. He raised his battle axe, waved it above his head twice, and then roared and rushed forward first. His personal soldiers followed closely with loud shouts, and the barbarians followed suit, leaving only a cloud of dust in their wake.

The Han army's advance was slow, only slightly faster than the "marching in step" prescribed in the drill manual. As they practiced, shieldmen advanced first, followed by wolf-whip spearmen, spearmen a little later, and crossbowmen armed with iron forks, all in full formation. The rebel leader led the charge. Facing the barrage of spears and wolf-whip spears, his personal guards seemed oblivious to the spears and charged forward. Half of them were struck by the spears, clinging to them for dear life. The leader seized the opportunity to charge into the ranks, swinging his axe left and right, slashing four or five men to the ground.

The rebels behind, taking advantage of the fact that the government lines hadn't yet closed, also rushed in. Diwudeng, commanding from the rear, was furious. He cursed and rebuked his soldiers, slapping them on the back with his short staff, threatening them to hold their ground and not break formation. He ordered the rear crossbowmen to ascend the heights and aim down at the barbarians. His efforts halted the gap, and the rebel leader's personal guards dwindled, forcing him to retreat temporarily to avoid being surrounded.

On the other side of the battlefield, the government troops easily overwhelmed the enemy. Most of the rebels, having encountered such a strange formation for the first time, hurled their axes and spears from a distance of seven or eight paces, then charged forward to fight. However, their projectiles were mostly deflected by the long shields and the dense bamboo branches attached to their wolf-whip spears. As they closed in, they habitually used swords and axes to hack at the wolf-whip spears, only to be killed by the sudden thrusts of spears from behind. Panicked, the rebels retreated, attempting to regroup. But the Mandarin Ducks, far more agile than the average spear phalanx, gave chase and easily dispatched the enemy from behind. This triggered a larger retreat, and like a domino effect, more and more of them turned and fled, drowning out the remaining forces.

"Chase them and capture the enemy camp!" Nie Sheng waved his arms excitedly under the banner: "We won, godfather, we won!"

"Hmm!" Wei Cong suppressed his inner excitement and said in a deep voice, "The outcome is still uncertain, so stop making a fuss!"

"Yes! Yes!" Nie Sheng looked at Wei Cong with admiration, secretly comparing him to his biological father, Nie Zheng. While Wei Cong lacked Nie Zheng's bravery, Nie Zheng also lacked Wei Cong's ability to lead an army and defeat the enemy. If anything, a single enemy couldn't match the might of ten thousand. He calmed down a bit, then the passion that characterized youth gradually began to boil again.

"Godfather, let me take the bandit chief's head!" Nie Sheng pointed at the rebel leader who was surrounded on three sides and was still fighting desperately. He was standing on a small hill. He didn't know when his helmet was gone. His hair was disheveled and he was holding a two-handed axe. There were twenty or thirty followers and bodyguards around him. He roared and fought desperately, like a lion forced into a desperate situation.

"You—?" Wei Cong glanced at Nie Sheng, then at the rebel leader fighting desperately in the distance, and decided to give the boy a safer mission. "Forget it, you're my adopted son, so don't fight with the soldiers for such easy military merit. How about this? Take that Lu Ping, fly my flag, and go to the market town. Tell them that the imperial reinforcements have arrived and are here to escort us in!"

"Here!" Nie Sheng responded excitedly. He raised the big flag, kicked his horse's belly hard, and shouted, "Follow me!" Then he spurred his horse towards the market town.

"How can the people behind catch up with him when he runs so fast!" Looking at the boy's back, Wei Cong shook his head and complained.

"Young people are always impatient!" Huang Ping said with a smile, "I think it's okay!"

"Really?" Wei Cong rolled his eyes at him. "Have you forgotten how his father died?"

"This..." Huang Ping was speechless for a moment, and after a moment he smiled bitterly and said: "What the captain said is true, but it should be better when he is older!"

Wei Cong remained silent, his attention returning to the battlefield. His own Zuo Qu had completely overwhelmed the enemy on the other side. The sunlight shone on the tips of their spears, and their crimson armor seemed to burn like flames. The rebel right wing collapsed completely, like glass struck by a hammer. Under Zhao Yannian's command, rows of spearmen swung right, circled behind the enemy left wing, and attacked them from behind, driving the fleeing soldiers into the swamp. The exhausted defeated threw down their weapons and collapsed to the ground, begging for mercy. Although a few men, inspired by the rebel leader, still put up a desperate resistance on the hillock, it was only a matter of time and did not affect the overall situation.

"Go tell Zhao Yannian to hurry up and not let the bandit leader go!" Wei Cong yawned, his attention shifted to what happened next.

"Yes!" The messenger responded excitedly and turned to run towards Zuoqu.

"And you!" Wei Cong said to Huang Ping, "Let's follow the original agreement. The rest of the matter will be handed over to your friends! Remember, I don't give credit here!"

"Please rest assured about this!" Huang Ping straightened his chest quickly, his eyes full of excitement.

Wei Cong nodded, jumped on his horse, and ran towards the ambush to block the reinforcements. His elite soldiers hurried to follow. Huang Ping faced the direction where Wei Cong had left, half bowed, and only stood up straight again when his superior was far away, and walked down the hillside. As soon as he walked down the hillside, he was surrounded by a dozen men in short robes and small crowns on their heads. They asked in unison: "A Ping, how is it? Did the old captain agree?" Huang Ping said nothing, but raised his head with dignity, with his right hand holding the hilt of the sword at his waist and his left hand stroking his beard. Everyone was familiar with him, so they knew that he was just showing off and waiting for a good price. The oldest one among them coughed and said: "Gong Da, we are all old friends. As long as this matter is done, we will naturally not forget your kindness. Just give us a real answer, and each of us here will give you two thousand coins, how about it?"

"Correct!"

"Gongda, give me a definite answer, will it work or not?"

"Yeah, we've been friends for so many years, so stop holding me back and tell me the truth!"

Huang Ping estimated that there were fifteen or sixteen people here. With two thousand coins each, that would add up to thirty thousand coins, a considerable sum. He laughed, "Brother, what are you talking about? I was just thinking about how to tell you. After all, Lord Wei is now the Rebellion Suppression Captain. His word is military order. If he's not careful, he could lose his head. How can this be about money?"

"We naturally dare not disobey Captain Wei's orders!" the older man said, "But you have to give us a hint, right?"

"Okay, okay!" Huang Ping stretched out his right hand and spread out his five fingers: "Hand over this amount, and the affairs of the military market will all be yours!"

"Five hundred thousand coins?" The older man's face darkened. "Gongda, you're kidding, right? Five hundred thousand coins to open a military market? How can we do this business?"

"Yes! Even if Captain Wei has a military order, he can't let us do a business that loses money!"

"The military market is lucrative, but Captain Wei only has a few thousand men under him. If we want to earn 500,000 yuan, we can't do this business!"

Everyone complained. These people were all small and medium-sized merchants from Jiangxia, Nanjun. They were friends Huang Ping had made when he was wandering around and unemployed. This time, when Wei Cong went to war, they wanted to follow him and become merchants with the army. So, they got on Huang Ping's line and followed Wei Cong's army. In ancient times, when the army marched to war, there were usually merchants accompanying the army. During the intervals of the battle, the merchants sold various supplies to the soldiers, and bought the spoils and slaves looted by the soldiers. They even provided remittance and mailing services for the soldiers. The place where they traded was called the "military market", and the generals could collect taxes in the military market to supplement military expenses. Wei Cong had just planned to convert the rent and taxes into a lump sum of 500,000 coins to save the trouble of collection.

Huang Ping listened to everyone's complaints without getting angry. He just smiled and listened without saying anything. When everyone grew tired of talking, he smiled and said, "Everyone, do you think that 500,000 yuan is too much and that it's a loss-making business? Let me put it this way, once the captain opens his mouth, the money is inevitable, but whether it's a loss or not, I can still discuss it with you! Brother Ge, let me ask you, what is the current price of slaves in Jiangling City?"

"That depends on who they are!" the older man replied. "An ordinary slave is only ten thousand coins. If it's a strong or beautiful young female slave, it would be around twenty or thirty thousand coins!"

"Yeah!" Huang Ping said with a smile, "You all saw it just now. There are at least 500 or 600 barbarians, including 200 captured alive. They are all young and strong men. At most, they can only be worth 3,000 or 4,000 coins each in the military market. If you transport them back, train them for two or three months, and sell them on, wouldn't you make over a million coins?"

The older man was moved by Huang Ping's words, but he said, "It's not as simple as you say, Gongda. Many of these barbarians are injured. They need to be healed before they can be sold. They are very violent and violent. How can they be tamed in two or three months? During this period, food and other necessities cost money. Moreover, with so many people transported at once, the market price will definitely drop. If I lose money, I won't even know where to cry!"

"Even if food and daily necessities cost money, what's that compared to the price they sell for? Besides, you don't get free food at your place. You have a quarry and a brick kiln at home, so you're definitely not short of manpower. As for the market price, even if the price drops in Jiangling, you can just ship it to Jiangxia E County. There are copper mines and iron mines there, and they'll take as many workers as you want!"

The older man was left speechless by Huang Ping's rapid-fire barrage of words. After a moment, he sighed, "Okay, okay, it doesn't matter to me, but what about the others? After all, not everyone can make a profit, right?"

"What a joke!" Huang Ping laughed. "Didn't you see? The bandits' camp has been taken over by the lieutenant. They've looted countless counties, and all that money went into the soldiers' pockets. All that stuff has to be converted into money, and isn't that profitable? Besides, the soldiers won a battle, killed people, so they have to have some fun, right? What do men need for fun? Wine, women. Lao Yun, don't tell me you don't have those on your boat. Soldiers fight on the battlefield, their heads on the line. Their money is the easiest to earn. This is a river of money flowing before you. Whether you can pick it up or not depends on your ability!"

Huang Ping's words warmed everyone's heart. As Huang Ping had said, military service was the easiest money to earn. As long as Wei Cong could continue to win battles, the huge fortune would at most circulate among the soldiers before eventually reaching their own pockets. With that thought in mind, the price tag of 500,000 yuan didn't seem so high anymore.

"Gongda, aren't we ignorant?" The man surnamed Ge said with a smile, "We've been friends for so many years, please be more understanding. We'll go back and collect the money for Captain Wei and send it over before dark!"

"Yes!" Huang Ping nodded. "The captain has already said that there will be no delays. Also, this riverside town is strategically located. When the imperial army advances, it will definitely be used to transport supplies. If you are interested in this, please make preparations in advance. I only mention this because of our long-standing friendship. There is no time to waste!"

"Okay, okay! Thank you for your help!"

After seeing Huang Ping off, the crowd gathered again, each one eager to try. The man surnamed Ge coughed and said, "According to what Gongda said, this deal is indeed doable, but we need to raise the 500,000 yuan first. Here's how! I'll put up 100,000 yuan!"

(End of this chapter)