Stirring (6)
Using the death of his younger brother Gongsun Yue as his pretext, Gongsun Zan — who had dug himself in near Guangzong County — received word that Yuan Shao had marched out to war at the head of her army.
"Hm. She answers the call to battle without the slightest hesitation. Unexpected."
"It seems she has realized you would never withdraw, my lord." Gongsun Fan, standing at Gongsun Zan's side, picked up the thread.
"And yet I half expected her to send something along with a plea for reconciliation." Gongsun Zan muttered it with a flicker of disappointment, and Gongsun Fan opened his mouth once more.
"She appears convinced that after devouring Jizhou whole, she can now hold her own against you, my lord."
"...Hahaha! You've hit the mark exactly."
Flattered by Gongsun Fan's fawning, Gongsun Zan let out a laugh, plainly in good humor.
"You're right. Her forces have swelled so much, no wonder a confidence she never had before has taken root."
Turning Jizhou's total troop strength over in his mind, Gongsun Zan gave his beard a slow stroke.
"I hear that even after Governor Han Fu lost to me time and again, he still had tens of thousands of infantry left standing."
"Add to that the soldiers Yuan Shao personally raised in Bohai, and she must stand close to a hundred thousand strong, my lord."
Gongsun Zan snorted at Gongsun Fan's words.
"A hundred thousand, is it... Why, that's nearly the number fielded by that woman who used to strut about calling herself Provincial Governor of You Province, lording it over me."
"Hah! Now that you mention it, so it is."
"Laughable women, the lot of them. War is no game of counting heads."
Having spent their days playing politics in the capital, they seemed to have no notion of how a battlefield truly worked.
"So the coward who did nothing but hide in the rear now deigns to answer a call to war..."
Recalling how Yuan Shao had hung back and looked only to her own safety during the coalition days, Gongsun Zan shook his head slowly.
"Does this mean the army Jeong Reung leads is to be feared, but mine is not?"
Now that was an insult he could not let pass.
"Gongsun Fan. Go over the camp once more and see the army put back in order."
"As you command!"
Gongsun Fan bowed to the order and withdrew.
"Yes. Some lessons no one learns until they've been beaten firsthand."
And so I shall teach her myself.
With eyes gone cold as drawn steel, Gongsun Zan fixed his gaze upon the direction of Yuan Shao's army.
"I'll have her trembling at the mere sound of my name."
Before long, the great host of one hundred thousand under Yuan Shao reached Guangzong County.
Gazing out at the Yuan army stretched long across the open plain, Gongsun Zan let slip a low exclamation.
"So that is the army of Yuan Shao? Its scale is certainly enormous."
So that is the latent might of the land called Jizhou.
The more he dwelt on it, the more the region whetted his appetite.
Picking Yuan Shao's formation apart at his leisure, Gongsun Zan felt a faint doubt stir.
"...Is that the vanguard?"
At the very center of the Yuan army's long, straight line, a single detachment jutted conspicuously forward.
Every soldier in that unit hefted a massive shield covering most of the body — evidently meant to turn arrows.
"They appear to have taken your White Horse Volunteers into account, my lord." Gongsun Fan, returned from finishing the reorganization, offered his read.
"...Heh heh."
Hearing him out, Gongsun Zan looked upon the Yuan army and let a sneer curl across his face.
"How amusing. Did she truly believe a shield turns every arrow?"
A shield, after all, was a consumable good with a finite lifespan.
No matter how stoutly it endured an attack, it was routine business for an arrow to punch through and bury itself in the hand behind it, or for the shield to splinter into useless scraps.
If arrows fell like a driving squall, the line's collapse was a foregone conclusion — so what manner of confidence had possessed them to abandon formation and stand at the very front?
"Does she mean to test just how many arrows we carry?"
"It would appear so."
"Hahahahaha!"
As Gongsun Fan chimed in, Gongsun Zan burst into easy laughter.
"If they're so eager to become pincushions for my arrows, it would be churlish to refuse."
Gongsun Zan rounded on Gongsun Fan and roared.
"Gongsun Fan!"
"Yes, my lord!"
"Pass word to Yan Gang! Show those fools who so brazenly hold the front what our arrows taste like!"
"At once!"
Gongsun Fan relayed the order, word for word, to the messenger at hand.
Scarcely had the messenger bowed and taken his leave before the White Horse Volunteers at the front raised a war cry and surged forward.
Yuan Shao's army — gathered and marched all the way to Guangzong County in Julu — now came face to face with the host led by Gongsun Zan.
As Yuan Shao studied Gongsun Zan's forces from a short remove, the aide beside her spoke.
"That would be the White Horse Volunteers of which Gongsun Zan so proudly boasts."
"..."
Just as the aide said, ranks of cavalry mounted on white steeds were arrayed across the entire front line of Gongsun Zan's army.
Thousands of riders astride identical white horses, forming themselves into formation — it made for quite the spectacle.
Having watched the sight, Yuan Shao turned her gaze upon a certain figure and put the question.
"If my reports hold true, Gongsun Zan will send out the White Horse Volunteers first. Will he not?"
"He will."
Tian Feng — who had come under Yuan Shao's banner when Governor Han Fu of Jizhou surrendered — answered at her side.
"He will spread the White Horse Volunteers wide as wings and pour arrows down upon the soldiers at our front."
Hearing him out, Yuan Shao pondered a moment, then looked toward the army's vanguard.
That unit was led by the very general who had swaggered and sworn he could smash the White Horse Volunteers.
...Qu Yi, was it?
The moment his secret letter had reached her hands, Yuan Shao had committed to memory the name of the general who had risen in revolt from under Han Fu's command.
The boastful officer who had vowed that if she would only grant him a portion of her shield-bearing spearmen and strong crossbowmen, he would send those cavalry fleeing like hounds with their tails ablaze.
I do hope he proves worthy of all that brimming confidence.
Having slipped free of Yuan Shao's long straight line to take up position at the head of the field with his own troops, Qu Yi waited with perfect calm for Gongsun Zan to come to him.
And so the two sides glared across the field at one another, locked in standoff, for the space of several minutes.
"Teach those cowards with your own hands what war truly is—!!"
WAAAAAGH—!!
The instant Gongsun Zan's general bellowed the command, the White Horse Volunteers at the front began to move.
When thousands of riders atop white horses urged their mounts forward as one, it felt as though the very pillars of the earth were being shaken.
The spearmen holding the front found cold sweat running down their backs, their hands trembling faintly before they knew it.
"Do not be afraid—!!"
As the White Horse Volunteers bore down on them with thunderous shouts, the general leading the vanguard exhorted the men around him.
"Move only as I have ordered, and we will win! Crouch as low as you can and raise your shields against the arrows!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Those cowards will never dare charge us! All you must do is stop the arrows!"
It was true. In the end, just as he said, the White Horse Volunteers were horse archers, focused solely on loosing their bows from the saddle.
"You hold shields in your hands — what is there to fear from a few arrows! Am I not right?!"
"That's right—!"
As if to drown out their fear, the soldiers roared their reply.
Yes. At the very least, it beat colliding head-on with heavy cavalry.
Stop the arrows, and they would win.
Even as the men hardened their hearts and squeezed their shields tight, the White Horse Volunteers did not slow their advance.
Before anyone knew it they were within a stone's throw, bows rising, arrows set to string.
"Here they come—! Brace yourselves—!!"
Qu Yi, general of the vanguard, roared with all his might.
In the same breath, the White Horse Volunteers released their strings, and a storm of arrows took wing.
Thousands of arrows, loosed in a single instant.
They came sheeting down like a sudden squall, hammering into the soldiers.
"GAAAGH!"
"URGH!"
The less fortunate soldiers caught arrows through the gaps their shields failed to cover; the most unfortunate of all shrieked as the shafts punched clean through their shields.
Spread like wings, the White Horse Volunteers kept their distance and rained down arrows utterly unopposed.
Shot through again and again, the shield-bearers were being whittled away, man by man.
Faced with the sight, his aide cried out to Qu Yi in haste.
"General!"
"Not yet! We must draw them in deeper!"
Qu Yi waved off his aide's alarm in a single stroke.
"Move now, and all they'll do is gallop out of reach! Endure just a while longer!"
Shouting himself hoarse, Qu Yi drove his soldiers on again and again.
The White Horse Volunteers crept steadily closer, loosing all the while, and the spearmen gritted their teeth and held firm behind their shields.
When the Volunteers had closed to within a few dozen paces, Qu Yi judged the moment ripe and gave the order.
"NOW! Spearmen—! CHARGE—!"
WAAAAAGH—!!
At Qu Yi's word, thousands of spearmen raised a great cry and hurled themselves forward.
At a glance, it looked like nothing more than a final, flailing desperation.
Left to their own devices, the White Horse Volunteers would simply sneer at the charge, wheel their horses about, and keep pouring arrows into them.
But Qu Yi had not given such an order empty of thought.
His aide, watching the field, turned to look at him.
Qu Yi gave a small nod — and moved in concert with the units posted nearby.
The strong crossbowmen of Hebei, whom he had begged from Yuan Shao and folded beneath his own command.
Hidden in the lee of the shield-bearing spearmen, the crossbowmen had split into two bodies and taken position on the left and right flanks, waiting on Qu Yi's word.
Qu Yi bellowed.
"LOOSE—!"
THWIP-THWIP-THWIPWEEENG—!!
The bolts tore out at a speed that made the White Horse Volunteers' own volleys look like idle flicks of the wrist.
"AAAAAAGH!"
"Wh-what in the—! Gak—!"
With every eye pinned on the spearmen charging at them, the White Horse Volunteers dropped one after another beneath the crossbowmen's bolts.
"Return what our comrades took — many times over!"
The countless bolts loosed by the massed crossbowmen made short work of skewering the White Horse Volunteers, along with the lancer cavalry who had charged in to screen them.
The elite riders of whom Gongsun Zan boasted so proudly began to crumble.