Monopolizing Fortunes (225)
Monopolizing Fortunes (225)
The attacks aimed at the Mongol cavalry had also lost some of their earlier force. As a result, more cavalrymen were getting past them, and the corpses of the soldiers guarding the rear had increased as well.
Of course, the Mongol cavalry's losses were incomparably greater. During this bloody battle of two and a half shichen, roughly three-tenths of them had likely been wiped out.
Counting both men and horses, well over ten thousand corpses filled Sapung Valley. Those bodies naturally slowed the Mongol cavalry's advance.
And at some point, the Mongol cavalry stopped. Advancing was impossible without trampling the dead, so even the Mongol cavalry had no choice in the matter.
"Hoo—! Hoo—!"
Rough breathing sounded from Jang Yu-seom and Ju Seo-in on either side of Do Tong-dal. The two had hit the limits of their stamina half a shichen ago. The only reason they had been able to keep fighting until now was that unproven power called mind over body.
The faces of the Mongol cavalrymen beholding the gruesome scene spread before them were filled with unmistakable disbelief.
"How can this be......."
The Mongolian that had lain dormant in his past-life memories came back to him. The period spent fighting the Mongol army had been only about four months, but in that short time Do Tong-dal had picked up enough Mongolian to manage everyday conversation.
Come to think of it, whether it was the Southern Barbarian tongue or Japanese, Do Tong-dal's language acquisition was astonishingly fast. Of course, it had been a desperate struggle for survival.
Because understanding the enemy's language raised his odds of surviving on the battlefield by even a little.
A man in his mid-thirties with the distinctive features of a Mongol stared at the corpses filling Sapung Valley and muttered to himself in Mongolian that even Do Tong-dal could not catch.
The reactions of the Mongol cavalrymen facing their comrades' bodies were no different from the man's. The countless corpses of the comrades and brothers they had believed to be the strongest in the world did not feel real to them.
On a battlefield, where there are dead, there are naturally wounded as well. Yet nowhere in Sapung Valley could any trace of living Mongol cavalrymen be found.
The fact that no survivors had been left so thoroughly sent an even greater chill through them.
The man looked at Do Tong-dal, Jang Yu-seom, and Ju Seo-in standing side by side. They were drenched in blood from head to toe, but it was easy to tell the blood was not their own.
"Was it you? Was all of this your doing?"
Do Tong-dal glanced back at the corpses piled behind him and answered.
"Not all of it, but most of it, yeah."
When Do Tong-dal answered in Mongolian, Jang Yu-seom asked, "You can speak Mongolian too?" and Ju Seo-in said, "What can't my husband do?"
The man, Barka, younger brother of the Khan and supreme commander of the Mongol army, could not believe those words.
He had asked "Was it your doing?" hoping to hear that it was not. Looking at the corpses piled like small hills, the three of them were certainly suspect enough.
But he absolutely could not believe that three people had annihilated the six thousand five hundred cavalrymen who had been riding ahead of Barka.
Even if it had been possible thanks to the help of the soldiers behind them, the very fact that they were standing there after beating back a tidal wave of cavalry made no sense.
"You people...... who are you?"
"Can't you tell by looking?"
"Are you really soldiers of the Central Plains?"
"And you?"
"I am Barka, younger brother of Khan Uldark and supreme commander of the Mongol army."
"With an army this size invading, the Khan naturally came along too, right?"
The emperor of the Central Plains stayed away from most battlefields and remained in the Forbidden City. Cases of personally joining a battlefield could be counted on one hand even if one searched through all the past reigns.
But when the Mongols invaded another country, unless something unusual occurred, the Khan personally took part in the conquest.
"You will never meet the Khan."
"I wonder. If we kill just another thousand here, the Khan might come begging to meet us, don't you think?"
"You insolent bastard!"
Barka turned his head and shouted.
"Summon the Talabu brothers!"
The Mongol cavalry filling Sapung Valley parted to both sides, and three men emerged.
Seeing those three brothers, one could tell just how sturdy and powerful Mongol horses were.
Mongols were originally a small-statured people. Yet those three men were enormous beyond all common sense.
Standing seven cheok tall with bear-like frames, they made the horses they rode look shabby.
The Talabu brothers were the finest warriors of the Mongol cavalry. Because of their huge bodies, their mobility as cavalrymen suffered, but once their feet touched the ground, there was no one who could stand against them.
Even those called first-rate masters of the martial world could not withstand their brute strength. Of course, he could not guarantee they were stronger than the ones who had created the scene before his eyes.
Honestly, he did not think the Talabu brothers would win against those three. But if they faced only Do Tong-dal rather than all three, the outcome was uncertain.
No matter how strong he was, as long as he was human, Barka did not think he could withstand the Talabu brothers' combined assault.
When the Talabu brothers dismounted, Barka pointed at Do Tong-dal.
"Bring me that arrogant bastard's head at once!"
Barka deliberately singled out Do Tong-dal alone. A man with pride would not ask the comrades at his sides for help.
A sneer tugged at the corner of Do Tong-dal's mouth.
"Three on three would be tough, but you think those three brutes can beat me alone."
'That demonic bastard!'
Goosebumps rose on Barka's skin at how Do Tong-dal had read his mind from a single pointing gesture.
"If those are the axes you put your faith in, I'll show you just how useless those axes are. Come at me."
One of the Talabu brothers asked Barka.
"Are we really all three facing that one man?"
"Yes."
"I think I alone would be enough."
Barka spat out a growling voice.
"Follow orders."
Inwardly, Barka cursed him for a fool. Even after seeing the scene before his eyes, the man could not hide his stupidity in thinking only of his own strength.
The Talabu brothers slung over their shoulders huge blades that looked like something bandits would carry and advanced toward Do Tong-dal.
Squelch! Squelch!
They made no effort to avoid the corpses buried in the bloody mire.
"He's a pretty one."
"Dress him up as a woman and play with him, that could be fun."
"Should we take him alive? Heh heh heh......."
He wanted to see inside the heads of men who exchanged such talk even as they came trampling over corpses they could not avoid.
'Maybe they really do have that much skill.'
They had sent out the strongest of the Mongol cavalry, so they would not be weak.
Behind the Talabu brothers, Barka roared.
"Don't let your guard down and give it everything you have! You idiots!"
But the Talabu brothers showed not the slightest sign of tension.
"Should we catch that quacking duck first?"
"The Khan would scold us."
"We mustn't be scolded by the Khan."
The Talabu brothers stopped walking two jang in front of Do Tong-dal.
"That bastard's blade looks good. That blade is mine."
"We should do rock-paper-scissors."
"The one who kills him owns it."
"Fine!"
Without any of them needing to say who would go first, the three brothers charged at Do Tong-dal.
Thud! Thud! Boom!
Corpses burst under their feet, spraying blood that looked freshly spilled in every direction.
The three running side by side had raised their blades high, each seeming intent on being the first to split Do Tong-dal's skull.
"Haaaap—!"
Before the Talabu brothers' battle cry had even ended, Do Tong-dal's blade moved from left to right. The extended crimson blade-edge had not yet reached the Talabu brothers.
But the invisible blade qi carried farther than the blade-edge, which stretched a full two ja.
The one on the left had his chest split open first. The one in the middle also sprayed blood from his chest. The last one was cut clean in two.
As Do Tong-dal stepped lightly aside, the two who were already dead but could not overcome their charging momentum passed by him.
The three enormous corpses crashed down atop the bodies of the Mongol cavalrymen. The three said to be the strongest of the Mongol cavalry had died in a single move to Do Tong-dal.
Do Tong-dal looked at Barka, whose mouth hung half open in shock.
"I expected a little more, but I'm disappointed. Is there no one stronger?"
A shudder ran through Barka's entire body. There might exist someone who could kill the Talabu brothers alone. But he had never even imagined there could be a human who could kill all three with a single stroke.
'That thing is not human!'
Holding the Makya Blade, whose edge even radiated heat, Do Tong-dal seemed not like a man but like a war god incarnate.
Never in Barka's life had he felt such fear and awe toward a human being. It was a feeling he had never even harbored toward the Khan, Uldark.
"Should I kill a thousand now?"
Do Tong-dal's words continued toward Barka, who had flinched.
"You don't seem to realize how disadvantageous your position has become. Why did you stop your advance?"
Even without an answer, anyone could tell it was because of the corpses of men and horses.
"This is no longer a road you can pass on horseback. What happens when Mongol cavalry dismount?"
The cavalry had already been reduced to this state, so if they dismounted, they would meet an even more terrible end. Barka imagined it and trembled.
"Then all that's left for you is retreat."
"The Mongol cavalry does not retreat!"
"If you can't advance and won't retreat, are you planning to live right there?"
This was the very definition of being caught between a rock and a hard place.
"You could retreat for now, reorganize your lines, and come again."
Do Tong-dal's words were the most realistic option at this moment. Now that they knew of Do Tong-dal's group's existence, they could even prepare countermeasures against them. If such countermeasures existed, that is.
"But if you retreat, do you think we'll just sit and watch? The moment you turn your horses around, we'll chase right after you. And then......."
The Makya Blade with its extended edge pointed at Barka.
"Right now you're at the front, but the moment you turn your horse around, your head—now at the very rear—will be the first to fly."
Even Barka, who prided himself on being worth a hundred men, did not think he could defeat the Do Tong-dal who had created this scene. So Do Tong-dal's threat was utterly realistic, and a threat that could become reality could not help but work.
"I do not fear death!"
That was sincere, but Do Tong-dal's next words made him clench his teeth.
"It won't just be you. Most of the Mongol cavalrymen who follow you, their supreme commander, will die too. I guarantee that by the time you escape Sapung Valley, I can cut down five thousand more."
Among the Central Plains' treatises on warfare, it was said that knowing the enemy and knowing oneself ensures victory in a hundred battles. They had thought they knew the enemy well enough, but in truth they had not known him at all.
They were now paying the price for underestimating the enemy.
"Shall we see the Khan now?"
No matter how much of a supreme commander he was, as long as the Khan was present, all decisions belonged to the Khan.
But there was no need for Barka to summon Uldark. Uldark had received reports of the situation from the rear and had come himself.
At forty years old, Uldark had a sturdy build for a Mongol, and his gleaming bronze skin made him look like a man in his twenties.
Uldark slowly passed between the Mongol cavalrymen parted to either side and stopped, and Barka offered his respects from atop his horse.
Even Uldark could not help but be shocked by the hellscape spread before his eyes. He had received reports, but the disaster he confirmed with his own eyes stirred a rage like that of a father who had lost his children.
But Uldark was not a man moved by emotion alone. He forced a calm expression and listened to Barka's low voice to the end.
From the scene before him and Barka's report, he could tell how dire their situation was.
His gaze fixed on Do Tong-dal. Young. He looked twenty-five at most, so young was fair to say.
But in the aura emanating from Do Tong-dal, there was not a trace of youthful rashness to be found.
'I knew far too little about the Central Plains!'
If he had known that someone like Do Tong-dal was in the Central Plains' army, he would have reconsidered this campaign. It was a greater blunder than trusting Prince Yeongun, who had tried to raise a rebellion.
Barka said to Uldark.
"If you give the order, I will relay it to him exactly as spoken."
If they decided to retreat immediately, Uldark would be positioned at the very rear and would be directly exposed to Do Tong-dal's attacks.
So Barka was telling him to make the decision and then move to safety, but Uldark shook his head.
"The Khan never hides behind his subordinates."
* * *