No Escape from the Sorcerer's Gaze
The suppression army at the Takgun battle was mocking the Yellow Turbans for choosing not to flee but to engage in a decisive battle instead. Yet the unit commander—no, Deng Mu, who had stepped up as leader in Zheng Yuanji's place—had his own thoughts on the matter.
First of all.
"If we run to Jizhou like this, what kind of treatment will we get!"
Imagine the rumor spreading that fifty thousand men had been shattered by a mere six thousand and fled. They'd obviously be seen as incompetent fools or worse. He still had no idea how those bastards had burned the main camp, but to tremble at a single surprise attack and bolt for Jizhou? It would destroy Deng Mu's reputation as the leader of this band. After that, every dirty job would surely get dumped on him and the men under his command.
"Their territorial bullshit is obviously going to suck, but as they say, even rolling in a pile of dog shit beats the afterlife..."
One of the men pushing to slip away to Jizhou under cover of night sighed and pushed back. Of course, Deng Mu had originally been just another subordinate under Zheng Yuanji, not the leader, so he wasn't the type who couldn't stomach taking orders and doing a few unpleasant tasks. It wasn't as if territorial hazing was the end of the world.
Why? Because.
"If that was all there was to it, I'd have said we should run right away... But there's a rumor that this Zhang Jue bastard uses sorcery."
"S-sorcery?!"
At the word, every Yellow Turban around them recoiled in horror. What was sorcery? In the primitive days of the distant past—the era that educated men today called the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period—when everyone had to kill or be killed, it was a technique only sorcerers employed. These days, people greeted a sorcerer by flinging salt and beating them with clubs, but back then? People rejoiced at the sight of them and treated them with the utmost respect. They didn't even use the insulting term "sorcerer." Everyone was too busy calling them "Taoist Master, oh, Taoist Master" and flattering them endlessly.
It was only natural. Seduce a Taoist master and your whole life could change. A dying old man could regain his youth in an instant. An ugly woman so hideous she could rot your eyes with a glance could become a stunning beauty after a single night. A starving beggar could turn into a tycoon who wiped his ass with silk and tossed it aside. A lowly slave could strut about as king of the nation the very next day. Who would refuse power that could pull treasures from the earth and beauties from the sea? So of course they had no choice but to treat sorcerers—no, Taoist masters—with reverence. Just feed them well and your life would transform? That was what everyone had believed.
Until Confucius revealed the truth behind their arts.
How could those so-called Taoist masters pull treasures from thin air with no price? How could they restore youth without any cost? Why did they wield such overwhelming power without paying anything at all? The poor young scholar Kong Qiu of Lu had always found it both enviable and deeply suspicious. So even amid his busy duties he made time to visit places rumored to practice sorcery and conducted his own quiet investigation. The results were utterly horrifying.
The old man who had supposedly regained his youth? Young men in the surrounding villages began dying suddenly with no warning. The ugly woman who had become a beauty? That dazzling woman was slaughtering people every night, ripping out their livers and devouring them. The beggar who became a tycoon? He suddenly turned violent as if possessed, murdered his entire family one night, then hurled himself into a well and drowned.
No price, you say? Wrong. Just like fattening a pig before the slaughter, they were using the people they lured in as sacrifices to grow their own power. My god—they were treating humans like livestock!
It was the moment the poor, ordinary young scholar Kong Qiu awakened as the righteous demon-slaying Confucius.
...In conclusion, the true nature of sorcery—or rather, Taoist arts—was the wicked magic of evil spirits who offered human sacrifices to perform their miracles. And unlike ancient times, everyone in the current era, no matter how ignorant, knew this. So it was perfectly natural that the Yellow Turbans were terrified.
A loser who took fifty thousand men, still lost to six thousand, and ran away? In the eyes of Zhang Jue, the sorcerer, what would they look like? Nothing but useless trash. And to a sorcerer, useless things existed only to be sacrificed.
In the end, only two choices remained: flee to Jizhou and become Zhang Jue's offering, or fight properly once and simply die.
...The Youzhou Yellow Turbans' choice was, naturally, to fight and die.
That was Deng Mu's first reason for choosing battle.
And the second reason.
Surprisingly, Deng Mu did not believe they would lose this fight. He even had fairly convincing logic to back it up.
Although the surprise attack had drastically reduced their numbers, they still had roughly twenty-five thousand soldiers left. The enemy facing them numbered a mere six thousand. Of course the opposition were well-trained elites with superior equipment and more cavalry, but... they were still only six thousand!
This wasn't a fight to hold a narrow pass; it was a battle on open grassland. There was no way the enemy could overcome a four-to-one disadvantage. Besides, the road leading to Bingzhou ran alongside rugged mountains. Large-scale cavalry operations were impossible in such terrain, so if they kept the mountains on their left, they only needed to watch for charges from the right.
In short, although the plain was wide, the enemy's cavalry could only maneuver from one direction. That meant that no matter how elite the foe, victory was still possible.
Take every man who had ever sat on a horse, mount them up, and send them to the right flank. While they tied down the enemy cavalry, the infantry would charge in and gut the horses. That would be the end of it. Could even well-trained riders break free and flee while locked in combat with fellow cavalry? Impossible. Cavalry that lost their speed were nothing but giant targets. Once our boys closed in, they'd be turned into horse meat.
Next came the infantry clash, where they held a massive numerical advantage. And they weren't fighting in a cramped space but on an open plain. How could they possibly lose that? Deng Mu had zero confidence that they would lose. Zero.
And so morning came. The battlefield was the wide grassland southeast of Daheung Mountain in Takgun. The two armies faced each other across the field.
From a small hill, Cao Cao observed the Yellow Turbans' formation and let out an unseemly cry of admiration.
"Wow! That's incredible! I don't know who their commander is, but... it looks like they're actually using their heads! Hahaha!! Doesn't this actually make things a little scary?"
She was speaking to Yuan Shu, who sat elegantly in a chair sipping honey water that had been brought from who-knows-where. As always, Yuan Shu simply ignored her.
Cao Cao scratched the back of her head awkwardly. Xiahou Dun, unable to stand it any longer, answered in her place.
"It's nothing but a beginner's delusion. Everyone's had that misconception at least once—that if you line them up in such a long formation, the cavalry won't be able to use their power and will just die."
"Well~ that's true, but isn't it still admirable? I'd love to keep them alive and point out every single mistake one by one... but I suppose that won't do, will it?"
Who knows. More importantly, it looked like things were about to begin.
Xiahou Dun, still glaring at the enemy formation, muttered, "Aman, enough playing around. Shouldn't we start preparing? It looks like they're about to move."
"Hmm... Shall we? Gonglu! May I borrow Deputy Commander Ji Ling for a moment?"
"Ji Ling."
"AYE!!!"
The massive man who had been gently stroking a small squirrel beneath a tree answered with a booming voice, startling the creature into flight.
"I shall rest here. You will follow that woman's request for this battle."
"AYE!!!"
"...Deputy Commander Ji Ling is as energetic as ever today! Good. Now then, how shall we proceed..."
Cao Cao stopped laughing for a moment and swiftly scanned the Yellow Turbans' formation. The red eyes hidden behind her squinting lids flashed with a chilling light. After a brief pause, once her thoughts were in order, her face returned to its smiling mask and the crimson gleam vanished once more behind her eyelids.
"Wonyang, how many light cavalry do we have available?"
"Roughly seven hundred."
"That's plenty... Excellent! Wonyang, take every light cavalryman immediately and maneuver widely across the left plain. The wind is at our backs, so don't worry about arrows—move as boldly as you like."
"Understood."
"And I shall lead the heavy cavalry again this time. Let's see... four hundred riders. Yes! I'll command the heavy cavalry myself! When the light cavalry spread out and pretend to target the enemy archers, their cavalry will surely charge. While they're engaged, I'll strike their rear. So make sure you draw them as far away from their infantry as possible."
Perhaps eager to fight as soon as possible, Xiahou Dun didn't bother replying with words. She simply waved a hand roughly and hurried down toward the battlefield.
"And Ji Ling will command the infantry once more in this battle."
"Deputy Commander! Ji Ling!!! I shall follow!"
"You'll need to buy time with three thousand infantry. Can you manage?"
"Three thousand!!! More than enough against those minnows!"
"Good. Since you'll be holding against a far larger force on open plains, you must retreat slowly while holding firm so you don't get surrounded. Understood?"
"Understood!"
With excessively spirited replies, Ji Ling led three thousand infantry out onto the plain.
"And Gonglu, please remain on this hill with the reserves. If it looks like Deputy Commander Ji Ling is in danger, it would be wonderful if you could assist."
Sip. Yuan Shu drank her honey water without answering.
Well... that probably meant she understood.
Cao Cao mounted her horse and simply smiled.