Dong Zhuo (3)
Do you know what Lanchester's Law is?
Simply put, it means that when two armies clash under perfectly identical conditions, the side with the greater numbers will defeat the smaller force while suffering fewer losses in the process.
And "perfectly identical conditions" includes everything.
The commander's ability. The quality of the weapons. The elite calibre of the soldiers. Flat, open ground rather than mountains or riverbanks.
You're thinking that's just common sense, aren't you? And you'd be right.
If two forces identical in every respect but numbers simply slammed into each other mindlessly, how could the smaller side possibly win? No trick in the world beats being ganged up on.
But in reality, no two armies ever meet under perfectly identical conditions.
So what is this law actually trying to say?
The point Lanchester's Law makes is a simple one.
In war, the side with fewer soldiers is overwhelmingly disadvantaged.
Which is why a smaller army, if it hoped to defeat a larger one, had to create variables. Luring enemy units into traps with stratagems to overcome the gap in numbers — that works. Demonstrating the power of science with weapons a technological age apart — that works too. Defeating an undisciplined rabble with soldiers drilled into perfect order — also works. Using the terrain to ambush from a forest or drown the enemy in a hail of arrows — that works as well.
But unfortunately, in this battle against Dong Zhuo, none of those variables could be created. With no strategist to devise schemes for us, there was no luring the enemy into traps. It wasn't as if we could pilot tanks or fighter jets — this was an age where every man fought with cold steel, leaving no gap in weaponry to exploit. The enemy's soldiers, moreover, were elites seasoned by long wars against nomadic tribes and rebels, so the calibre of troops was roughly even. And with the clash joined on the flat ground near Luoyang, even a battle of hills and forests was impossible.
So how were we to beat Dong Zhuo's more numerous host?
Simple.
If we lacked the wisdom to craft stratagems, then we would simply push through with overwhelming force.
"You call these elites? Now I see exactly what Dong Zhuo is made of!"
"Uwaaagh!"
Lü Bu, having plunged straight into the heart of the enemy formation, was grinding up their troops like a blender.
The real Lü Bu looked like she was off playing in a world all her own. While everyone else was playing a strategy game, she was playing a Musou game by herself.
At this rate I half expected her to behead the enemy commander at any moment and holler, Enemy officer defeated!…
"Gwaaaaagh—!!"
"That's one loud scream! Hey! Your commander's dead!"
And dead he truly was.
At some point Lü Bu had driven her horse deep into the enemy ranks, cut down their commander in a single stroke, and now let out a great shout.
The infantry under the general she had just slain began to fall into utter panic.
"General Fan Chou is dead!"
"W-what are we supposed to do now?"
Watching the confused infantry's formation threaten to collapse, another officer bellowed himself hoarse, directing the soldiers.
"Steady and hold your positions! If the formation breaks, every one of us dies!"
Just as the infantry regained their composure at his words and began firming up their shaken lines…
"Directing the troops is all well and good, but shouldn't you keep an eye on your own hide too?"
"You mad… Uwaaagh—!!"
"Good. Who's next in line to die?"
Thus the nameless officer who had been commanding the infantry met his end at Lü Bu's hands.
Everyone feared the sight of Lü Bu crossing back and forth through their lines as if it were her own backyard.
"You wild mare of a bitch—! Come here and let me wrangle you—!!"
"What was that?"
At the taunt drifting over from nearby, Lü Bu clamped down hard on the Sky Piercer Halberd and trembled.
"This bastard, that bastard — why does everyone keep treating me like some beast?"
"Scared, are you?! Hahaha! So the Peerless Under Heaven is nothing special after all—!!"
"Haah…"
Lü Bu exhaled a long sigh, then fixed a blade-cold glare on the man who had taunted her.
Now that — she was genuinely furious.
"You're dead now."
"…Haha! Come and try me!"
Yeah, he was scared.
Judging by how thickly he had ringed himself with nothing but spearmen, he clearly believed he had prepared for Lü Bu…
"Move!!"
CLAAANG!
The moment Lü Bu swept her Sky Piercer Halberd across the spear shafts, the spearmen, no match for her strength, lost their grips on their weapons entirely.
In a single stroke, the spearmen arrayed to counter her were rendered helpless.
"…Huh?"
By the time the officer who had taunted Lü Bu could put on his slack-jawed expression, she had already closed the distance, halberd sweeping down.
Watching his front line being carved open helplessly by Lü Bu, Dong Zhuo roared.
"Li Ru—!!"
"…Yes, my lord."
Li Ru bowed his body lower than usual.
Even for a man of his caliber, defying Dong Zhuo in such a fury would not end well.
"What in the world is Hua Xiong doing?! At this rate the formation will collapse!"
Dong Zhuo's voice cracked with urgency.
The speed at which that woman Lü Bu was unraveling his formation was far too fast. With the generals who should have been directing the soldiers dropping like scarecrows, the infantry — their chain of command thrown into disarray — swayed as though they might crumble at any moment.
"I threw every last Xiliang rider into the charge, so where is he and what is he doing, that there is still not one word from him—!!"
Dong Zhuo flew into a rage.
By now Hua Xiong, commanding the cavalry, should have struck the enemy's rear and thrown them into confusion. But the confusion that was supposed to happen never came, and the enemy simply fought on with perfect composure.
It was a situation he could not begin to understand.
Dong Zhuo considered the possibility.
"Don't tell me the man has turned coat? If not, then this situation…"
"…My lord."
Watching Dong Zhuo mutter to himself, Li Ru weighed his lord's temper and decided that this, at least, had to be said, and opened his mouth.
"……It appears the cavalry under General Hua Xiong is currently locked in a dead-even struggle with the enemy's horsemen."
"What did you say?!"
These were the mighty Xiliang riders before whom even the Qiang tribesmen fled trembling. And the man leading them was Hua Xiong, who boasted the greatest valor in all of Dong Zhuo's army — whatever force tried to bar his path, he should long since have punched through and claimed his glory.
But if there was an opponent that even the Xiliang cavalry under such a man could not break…
Li Ru, feeling the weight of his own misjudgment, bowed his head deep.
"…It appears the enemy fields another exceptional general, apart from Lü Bu."
"……"
For Dong Zhuo, it was devastating news.
Fwoosh—!
"Mmph?!"
Hua Xiong, locked in a standoff with a woman, threw his upper body back as far as it would go to evade a crescent blade that had come without warning for his neck.
"Kgh!"
He managed the evasion by a hair's breadth — but a hairline cut had been opened across his neck, and blood came trickling down. A shade deeper, and he would have died then and there.
"…You dodged it, I see?"
Hua Xiong watched the beauty — her face too serene for a battlefield — lower the crescent blade in her hand, and thought: Had that been General Lü, she would have taken my head in a single stroke…
He had no choice but to admit it.
"I really do need more training, it seems."
The woman smiling before him now was stronger than he was.
Even the Xiliang riders under his command were flustered by enemy cavalry stronger than they had expected. Glancing around, Hua Xiong spoke.
"…The calibre of these horsemen is staggering."
"Our soldiers have fought nomads who eat and sleep in the saddle, after all."
The Wuhuan. The Xianbei. The Xiongnu. Bing Province's soldiers, who had crossed blades with every last one of them, were — whatever anyone might say — the strongest troops under this heaven.
"Even so, we cannot retreat."
Everything his lord possessed was staked on this battle. It was a fight that must not, by any means, be lost.
"I will cut through you and prove my worth to my lord."
"Not a bad declaration."
At Hua Xiong's bold words, the woman barring his path — Zhang Liao — opened her mouth.
"Then allow me to prove my own ability to my lord as well."
"…Come at me!"
With those words, Hua Xiong and Zhang Liao collided.
Dong Zhuo's army, having failed to stop Lü Bu, at last had its formation smashed to pieces and was swept away.
With the generals meant to command them dying one after another at Lü Bu's hands behind their backs, how could they possibly hold their ground? Elite soldiers of Xiliang they may have been, but in the end they were still human. It only meant they could endure fear better than most — not that they felt no fear of death at all.
Worse, Lü Bu would now and then strike from behind the very troops facing her head-on, and those who could no longer master their dread began stealing glances about and quietly backing away. The small crack thus born was more than enough to bring Dong Zhuo's formation down.
"Retreat! Retreat—!!"
Thanks to Lü Bu's rampage, Dong Zhuo's formation finally crumbled — and in war, a collapsed formation meant nothing less than defeat. Dong Zhuo knew it too; the moment his lines gave way, he ordered the retreat without an instant's hesitation, intending to save as many soldiers as he could rather than drag on a battle with no hope.
But naturally, I had no intention of letting the fleeing Dong Zhuo army slip away meekly.
"The enemy is running! Chase them down!"
My own soldiers were weary indeed — but then, so was the enemy. Gathering the last of our strength, we gave chase.
"Kha-hak—!"
Hua Xiong vomited blood.
The crescent blade he had surely deflected with his spear shaft had moved like a serpent and skewered him through the belly.
"That's a technique General Lü often uses — it truly is a handful."
She bent the attack's path through raw strength alone? That's even possible?
Blood dripping from the corner of his mouth, Hua Xiong looked up at the woman who had felled him.
"…It seems Bing Province grows nothing but monsters."
Zhang Liao spoke to him with the crescent blade still buried in his body.
"If you weren't strong, you would have died long ago."
"—Heh heh. Now I find myself curious what manner of place it is."
Gazing after his fleeing army, Hua Xiong's eyes took on a distant, wistful look. In the end, he had failed to live up to his lord's expectations.
Zhang Liao tightened her grip on the crescent blade.
"Any last words?"
"…Only that it's a shame."
So in the end, I could not cross over.
Even so, for a general to die on the battlefield was an honorable end.
"Slay me."
When Hua Xiong closed his eyes, Zhang Liao, without a word, drew the crescent blade buried in his belly upward in one final stroke.
And so the mightiest fierce general of Dong Zhuo's army laid his body down upon the frozen earth.