Late Tang Dynasty: Descendants of the Imperial Clan

Liu Hong paused, then raised his hand and pointed to the south:

"As for the south, there is a lake beyond that bend in the mountain. Although it is not very large, it is still several hundred acres in size. The lake shore is muddy and slippery. It would take cavalry at least one or two hours to go around the lake. If infantry were to go around it, it would take even longer."

After listening, Shang Rang nodded and turned to Peng Zan, saying:

"Did you hear that? It will take most of the day to go around them. By the time your infantry reaches the Tang army's rear, it will probably be dark. By then, the Tang reinforcements will have already arrived. Although Zheng Tian cannot mobilize Cheng Zongchu and Tang Hongfu, they are not all fools. How could they not understand the principle of 'if the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold'? At most, they can arrive in half an hour by marching. This battle needs to be won quickly; we cannot afford to delay like this."

Peng Zan opened his mouth, as if to say something, but Shang Rang raised his hand to stop him. His gaze swept back and forth across the hill twice, and he suddenly said in a deep voice:

"Furthermore, Zheng Tian's command banner is right there on that hill. For a civil official like him to personally lead troops to block the way—what does that signify?"

The generals looked at each other, unable to fathom Shang Rang's thoughts.

Shang Rang's lips curled into a cold smile as he said:

"This shows that he truly has no troops to spare and no one to command, so he has no choice but to personally lead the troops to stabilize morale. The more he puts on this show, the weaker he is inside! If we keep going around in circles and dragging things out, we'll only give this old scoundrel a chance to catch his breath. What if he sees things are going badly and abandons his command, running away with the fleeing soldiers? Wouldn't we be missing a golden opportunity for nothing?"

As he finished speaking, he suddenly cracked his whip, the tip snapping sharply in the air, and said in a stern voice:

"Therefore, no need to go around! Attack from the front! Launch a frontal assault and charge forward in one fell swoop! Deploy as many troops as you can at the foot of this hill! Swarm up in one go, don't give him any chance to breathe!"

He suddenly turned around, his gaze sharp as lightning, sweeping over the generals before him, his voice rising several octaves:

"Pass down the order: Whoever captures Zheng Tian alive, regardless of whether he lives or dies, will be rewarded with a hundred gold pieces and ennobled as a marquis of a thousand households! Whoever kills Zheng Tian, ​​whether it is a squad leader or a cook, will be greatly rewarded and promoted five ranks! Today's battle is the foundational battle for our Great Qi to pacify Guanzhong!"

The moment the reward was announced, a burning greed and fighting spirit ignited in the eyes of the generals.

"This humble general is willing to die for the Grand Commandant and capture Zheng Tian's head!"

"This humble general is willing to be the vanguard!"

"Grand Commandant, just give the order!"

Looking at the eager faces before him, Shang Rang felt a surge of pride and proclaimed loudly:

"Then there's no need to wait any longer. Sound the drums and advance immediately! Launch a frontal assault and raze Dragon Tail Slope to the ground!"

Meanwhile, on the high hill of Longweipo, the soldiers who had been pretending to drag their armor and standing idly heard the drumbeat and stopped delaying. They all quickened their pace and, with the help of their comrades, quickly put on their armor.

On the official road below the hill, the infantry at the forefront of the rebel army had begun to regroup.

Squads and columns of infantry broke off from the marching ranks and spread out on the official road and the gentle slopes on both sides. More than ten war drums beat, and the muffled thuds made the ground tremble slightly.

It moved!

Holding the horizontal sword, Li Cenji, whose palms were slightly sweaty, suddenly whispered.

Zheng Tian followed his gaze, stared for a moment, a barely perceptible smile appearing on his lips, and slowly said:

"That's right, he's taken the bait. I thought Shang Rang would at least test the waters a bit first, but I didn't expect him to be so impatient. He skipped the testing altogether and pounced straight at me."

Li Cenji took a deep breath, suppressing the tension and excitement surging in his heart.

He turned to look at Zheng Tian, ​​whose face remained calm and composed, which reassured him somewhat.

-----------------

Meanwhile, the drums in the rebel army suddenly became more urgent, one beat after another, like a torrential rain pounding on a clay pot, making people's eardrums buzz.

The vanguard infantrymen shouted, and like a floodgate opened, they surged toward the high hill of Longweipo.

The rebels at the front were swordsmen and shieldmen, each holding a shield in one hand and a sword in the other, their steps steady, clearly veterans of many battles.

Following the swordsmen and shieldmen were several rows of archers, each with a full quiver at their waist and their bowstrings taut.

"Raise your shield—"

Chen An shouted at the top of his lungs at the front of the battle.

The infantrymen in the front row all raised their shields in unison.

The shields were all made of wood, with a layer of cowhide covering the surface. They were arranged in rows, like a low wall, completely obscuring the front of the hill.

The soldiers in the rear also raised their shields diagonally overhead to protect their heads, making the whole formation resemble a curled-up hedgehog.

The rebels advanced extremely quickly.

At first, he walked briskly, then he jogged, and later he ran all the way.

Dust was kicked up by their feet, mingling with heavy breathing and roars, creating a murky sound wave.

"Release the arrows!"

At the command given by the rebels, the humming of bowstrings sounded like the simultaneous flapping of wings of thousands of bees.

The first volley of arrows poured out from the rebel ranks, darkening a small patch of sky, drawing an arc in mid-air before whistling as they plummeted down onto the hill.

Knock knock knock—

The arrow struck the shield with a dull thud.

The arrows on the thinner shields pierced through the wooden planks, revealing several inches of iron tip, which nearly pierced the faces of the soldiers behind.

A few arrows slipped through the gaps in the shields, and a soldier groaned as an arrow struck his shoulder, but he gritted his teeth and held on.

"Hold your ground! Don't move!"

Chen An stood at the front of the battle line, shield in hand, an arrow also striking his shoulder. He didn't even look at it, but roared loudly.

"Hold your ground! The rebels are firing upwards; their power is insufficient to penetrate—"

As he predicted, although the first wave of arrows looked terrifying, most of them actually struck the shields, with only a handful causing real damage.

The rebel archers fired upwards, and although the arrows flew far, by the time they reached the top of the hill, they were exhausted and had lost most of their power.

Beside Zheng Tian, ​​the banner bearing the character "Zheng" had been pierced by several stray arrows, adding a few more holes.

Zheng Tian didn't even blink. He simply pushed aside the guards protecting him with their shields and said to a messenger beside him:

"Let 'Thunderbolt General' fire back."

The messenger responded and left. Before long, the five hundred "Swift Thunder Generals" hidden behind the infantry shouted in unison and fired the arrows that were already nocked down the mountain.

Although these respectable young men had only practiced archery and horsemanship for a little over two months and their accuracy was mediocre, they could shoot from a high vantage point with the wind at their backs, and their arrows traveled with tremendous force, plunging into the rebel army's charging formation in a dark mass.

A scream immediately came from the foot of the mountain.

Some of the rebel swordsmen and shieldmen at the forefront were shot through the shoulder and thigh because their shields were not fully covering them while they were moving, and they fell to the ground.

The people behind couldn't stop themselves and several tripped over their feet, causing the formation to break down for a moment.

But the rebels were seasoned veterans, and they quickly regained their footing.

The gaps left by the fallen front ranks were filled by the rear ranks, with swordsmen and shieldmen raising their shields even higher to cover the main force and archers as they continued to advance.

"Release the arrows!"

The rebels unleashed a second volley of arrows, this time closer and with even greater force. Several arrows even pierced through the gaps between the shield walls, pinning the soldiers behind them to the ground.

"Fill in the gap!"

Zhao Shun stood at the front of the left flank and saw his own soldiers falling. He then sternly ordered the rear ranks to take their place.

The two fallen soldiers were dragged to the back of the line, where the army medics rushed forward to provide aid.

The rebel archers fired three more rounds.

Each round is closer than the last, and each round is more intense than the last.

Although the Tang army on the high hill had shields for protection, they still lost dozens of men. Corpses and wounded soldiers lay scattered in front of the battle lines, and blood flowed down the slope, staining the withered grass stems dark red.

But the Tang army's formation remained completely still.

This is the result of Chen An's two months of intensive training.

Although the recruited defeated soldiers had fear on their faces and their hands holding shields were trembling slightly, not one of them took a single step back.

With the thousand veteran soldiers from Fengxiang and Longyou holding the line, they stood like iron nails in the formation, occasionally uttering low curses to calm the panicked new recruits.

Taking advantage of the moment when the rebel archers paused, "Swift Thunder General" fired two more rounds of shots.

Although his accuracy was limited, he still managed to take down dozens of people.

By the time the rebel archers had fired their fifth volley, the swordsmen and shieldmen at the forefront had closed to within ten paces of the Tang army's front line.

At this distance, it was too late to fire any more arrows.

A long horn blared from the rebel ranks, and the archers simultaneously lowered their bows and retreated, while the swordsmen and shieldmen in the front row roared and charged towards the Tang army lines like unleashed bulls.

boom--

The shields collided with each other, producing a dull, deafening thud that made one's blood surge.

The soldiers in the front ranks of the two armies were almost face to face, shield to shield, their panting, shouts and the clash of weapons all mixed together.

The rebel swordsmen, relying on their strength, desperately rammed their shoulders against the Tang army's shield wall, trying to tear a gap in it.

The Tang soldiers held their shields firmly, while the spearmen in the rear row desperately stabbed outwards through the gaps in the shield wall.

Li Changfu held a human shield and stood at the very front.

The two soldiers beside him had already been hit and were bleeding from their mouths and noses, but they still stubbornly refused to retreat.

Li Changfu gritted his teeth, slammed his shield to the ground, braced it with his shoulder, and thrust his right hand, wielding his sword, out from a tricky angle.

A scream rang out from the other side as a rebel swordsman was stabbed through the waist and abdomen, his blood splattering all over Li Changfu's face.

"withstand!"

Li Changfu wiped the blood from his face and roared hoarsely.

"Hold on, everyone!"

On the entire front of Longweibei Hill, along a line of several hundred paces, the vanguards of the two armies collided like two raging waves coming from opposite directions, creating a chaotic mess.

Amidst the flashing blades and flying flesh, screams, shouts of battle, the clash of weapons, and the groans of the dying, a deafening roar echoed far and wide from the high hill.

In a short while, a quarter of an hour had passed.

The withered grass on the hill was soaked with blood, and when you stepped on it, you could hear the sizzling sound of your shoes sticking to the soil.

Taking advantage of the terrain, the Tang army held a commanding position, and their battle lines remained unmoved.

The front-row swordsmen and shieldmen held the shield wall firmly, while the rear-row spearmen thrust their spears out through the gaps.

Although the rebels were exceptionally brave, they were unable to break through the Tang army's defenses.

Dozens of men would fall in the front row, and although those behind would immediately take their place, the momentum of the attack was such that after running a hundred paces in armor, they would only have six or seven tenths of their strength left. How could they possibly shake the Tang army's formation?

Even more deadly was that the five hundred "Swift Thunder Generals" hidden behind the infantry never stopped.

Although these respectable men were not particularly skilled archers, they could stand atop the hill and fire arrows down the mountain without even needing to aim. Below them were countless heads of rebel soldiers; they could simply draw their bows and shoot wherever there were many people.

Arrows flew over the heads of the Tang soldiers one after another, piercing into the rear ranks of the rebel army.

The rebel reinforcements that were surging toward the hill were hit by a volley of arrows before they even made contact with the enemy. Their formations were broken up from time to time. Although the casualties were not heavy, it caused panic among the troops and slowed their advance considerably.

Shang Rang stopped his horse on a mound about a mile from the high hill, shading his eyes with his hand as he looked ahead.

The smug smile on his face had faded somewhat, replaced by a furrowed brow.

"How long have you been playing?"

He asked in a deep voice.

The adjutant beside him said:

"Reporting to the Grand Commandant, it has been about a quarter of an hour."

"A quarter of an hour."

Shang Rang sighed, his gaze fixed on the two large banners still fluttering in the wind atop the hill.

"The terrain here limits the attack to three to five thousand men; otherwise, with the entire army pressing forward, how could we not take this hill in a quarter of an hour?"

A sense of unease crept into his heart.

Their own scouts were driven away, and unable to find out the location of the main Tang army, they had no idea where Zheng Tian's reinforcements were at this moment.

If this drags on, the battle will become much more difficult once Tang reinforcements arrive.

Just then, a messenger from the vanguard rode back, dismounted at the foot of the mound, knelt on one knee, and reported:

"Grand Commandant! The Tang army's lines are strong. Our brothers attacked three times, but were driven back each time. The Tang archers are hiding behind the lines, firing from higher ground. Our rear guard has suffered heavy casualties!"

Shang Rang's face darkened, but he did not retaliate.

He squinted and carefully examined the high hill of Longweibei from top to bottom once more.

Although the Tang army's lines on the hill were stable, the number of soldiers was limited, only about two thousand, and they were lined up horizontally in front of the hill, making their flanks appear quite weak.

Especially on the north side, only a few squads of infantry stood sparsely on that steep slope overgrown with withered grass, which did not seem like many.

Shang Rang suddenly raised his hand, the tip of his whip pointing towards the steep slope on the north side of the hill:

"Is it possible to climb that slope?"

A lieutenant glanced along the tip of his whip and said:

"Reporting to the Grand Commandant, although that slope is steep, it is not a sheer cliff. If we use both hands and feet, we should be able to climb it. However, there are quite a few loose stones and loose soil on the slope, so it will take some effort to climb."

"As long as we can climb up, that's fine."

Shang Rang slapped the riding whip in his palm and said decisively,

"Immediately issue orders to draw another two thousand men from the central army formation to press forward. They need not advance from the front; send one thousand to circle around to the north, climb that steep slope, and flank the Tang army's left flank. Send another one thousand to circle around to the south shore of the lake, and sneak up that slope to attack the Tang army's right flank from both sides. Such a lightly positioned defending force is most vulnerable to flanking attacks. Once the flank is breached, the front will collapse without a fight. Tell the brothers in the vanguard that the Grand Commandant has said that each man who takes the high ground will be rewarded with ten strings of cash!"