Cataclysm (3)
I ordered the messenger who had delivered the report of barbarians invading from the north to get some rest, then hurried off to gather further intelligence. How large were the enemy forces? What was their objective? And above all, who was the man leading them?
Thanks to all that frantic legwork, I managed to piece together a fair amount of information.
So—first things first. Who was at the head of that unmistakably ominous horde?
Unfortunately for me, my prediction had yet to miss.
According to yet another messenger, the barbarians kept saying something about a "Khan."
Khan.
Even someone with zero interest in world history would have heard that title at least once. There was only one man in history who united nomads too busy slaughtering one another to do anything else, styled himself Khan, and carried on a campaign of endless conquest.
Genghis Khan.
Conqueror and butcher. Could any two words capture him better?
"……"
Rummaging through my hazy memories, I tried to recall what the barbarians' territories looked like in this era. If I remembered right... the ones occupying the Mongol lands were the Xiongnu and the Xianbei, weren't they? The Xiongnu had once held not only all of Mongolia but reached into neighboring lands as well, until they brawled amongst themselves so relentlessly that their power shrank dramatically. The Xianbei had watched for that opening, descended from the mountains, and managed to plant a foot on the steppe themselves.
Then again, the Mongols were a people born from the mingling of countless nomadic tribes in the first place, so it wouldn't have been strange for these living war machines to emerge from anywhere.
...But where the Mongols had popped out from wasn't the point. The real question was what to do about a conquering army that plundered and razed everything in its path.
For starters, the barbarians that had revealed themselves near You Province numbered around one hundred thousand. Considering the nature of the northern tribes, it was safest to assume every last one of them was cavalry.
A large number, if you called it that... and yet somehow the figure felt oddly small.
If my memory served, Genghis Khan had led one hundred thousand men the moment he unified Mongolia. Yes—one hundred thousand, from Mongolia alone, in an age when settled nations like the Jin and Western Xia crowded in on every side. What's more, a territory far vaster than Mongolia had now been carved up among multiple barbarian tribes. If the Xiongnu, Xianbei, and Wuhuan had truly merged into one, shouldn't there be tens of thousands more?
The reason a sparsely populated land could produce that many soldiers was simple. They weathered savage civil wars in which they killed one another day after day, and because their people wandered the steppe living as herders, anyone who failed to become a hardened warrior simply didn't survive. No joke—every barbarian who knew how to sit a horse could pass for an elite soldier without exaggeration.
Anyway, having confirmed that the Mongol force was strangely understrength, I pondered for a moment, recalled which strategy the Mongols had favored, and sprang into action.
"Ma Chao."
"Yes! You called for me!"
The moment I sent a soldier to summon her, Ma Chao came running to my side as though she'd been waiting for exactly this. She really was astonishingly fast. Could it be that whenever she had nothing to do, she just circled around near me?
I addressed the woman whose beauty had earned her the epithet Splendid Ma Chao and who commanded tremendous support among the Qiang, yet another of the northern tribes.
"You may or may not already know this, but barbarians have appeared in the You Province region."
"Ah... is that so?"
At my words, Ma Chao gave a small nod, as if something had clicked. She had probably heard all sorts of tidbits from her father Ma Teng or from the Qiang tribes under her command. But she likely knew only that the barbarians' internal affairs had been in disarray lately—the odds were high she had no idea they had united as one.
The Qiang were busy enough brawling with the Di tribes right next door. Not that every Qiang followed the Han, either. Countless tribes still refused to submit, roaming the vast expanse of Xiliang and stirring up trouble wherever they went.
Nothing strange about that. Even the Mongol Empire itself had risen in revolt the moment Genghis Khan left on his campaign against the Jin—so what would the Han look like to tribes who saw it as nothing more than a target for plunder? Expose your undefended back, and these northern tribesmen would gladly slap the palm of even the Great Khan they served.
Ah, of course—the Mongols who did revolt were personally made honest men by Genghis Khan. He despised betrayal above all things.
Gazing into Ma Chao's jewel-like blue-silver eyes, I continued.
"I will assign you officers and soldiers, so see to it that the Xiliang and Yi Province fronts are guarded against the northern tribes."
"Xiliang and Yi Province, my lord?"
Receiving my orders, Ma Chao's voice carried a note of puzzlement.
"I understand Xiliang, but is there a reason I must guard Yi Province as well?"
"Ah... about that?"
Hearing her question, I answered with an air of it being no trouble at all.
"I have a feeling they'll stab us in the back."
"...?"
"If the barbarians swing wide in a great detour and strike at Nanzhong or Yi Province, things would become very difficult indeed, wouldn't they?"
I pictured the Tibetan Plateau lying beyond Yi Province's borders. The Mongol Empire's greatest trait, number one: the instant you trusted rough terrain and thought, Come now... surely they won't attack from this direction?—that was precisely the direction they came from. Whether the land was bone-chillingly cold or scorching hot, the Mongol army would blast straight through on overwhelming mobility.
Even a genius like Napoleon had been swallowed whole by Russia's cold, yet the Mongols conquered it—and anyone who knows their history knows they crossed the Kyzylkum Desert, four hundred sixty kilometers, roughly twelve hundred li, to strike the Khwarazmian Empire from behind. You could simply call it encirclement tactics on an entirely different scale. Crossing brutal terrain, surrounding the enemy, and hammering them from every direction was a maneuver the Mongol Empire employed constantly.
So could Mongols like those fail to cross a single Tibetan Plateau beyond Yi Province? As if. If anything, they were more likely to absorb the tribes lingering on the plateau and swell their army even further. The nomads living there would be pounded by Mongols appearing out of nowhere, wail their eyes out, and get conscripted on the spot. Honestly, even the word "thugs" might be too gentle for these people.
In the original history, too, when the Mongol Empire attacked the Southern Song, they swung in a vast arc around China, struck Yunnan first, and used it as a supply base. That's right—Nanman, Meng Huo's homeland.
"...Good heavens."
When I—who knew the Mongol Empire's every move—somehow stitched together an explanation of why even Yi Province needed defending, Sima Yi, standing nearby, showed clear astonishment.
"Are you really the person I know? How on earth did you think of all that?"
"……"
I held my silence at that exclamation that wasn't quite an exclamation. ...The truth was, I simply knew how the Mongol Empire behaved. Had I not, I'd probably have stood there in a daze, taken a blow from behind, and jumped out of my skin. No—even if I hadn't known, the pint-sized strategists nearby would have sorted it out somehow.
"Still speaking with that utter lack of manners, I see."
"Hmph. I'd say I'm doing better than a certain someone who can't even manage herself and only causes our lord grief."
"……"
Zhuge Liang, freshly returned from her forced vacation, landed a single counterattack, took one right back, and shut her mouth at once. It had been a while since I'd seen Zhuge Liang lose a war of words.
"Uu... they're fighting again..."
Pang Tong, standing nearby, merely glanced around with a helpless expression.
"As expected, my lord's brilliant insight is beyond all comparison!"
At that moment, Ma Chao, who had been turning my words over in her head, cried out to me with shining eyes.
"I, Ma Chao, shall carry out every order as my lord commands!"
"...Right."
That "as my lord commands" patter of hers showed no sign whatsoever of ending. Honestly, wasn't she the least bit embarrassed?
"Then I shall take my leave—!"
Ma Chao shouted with vigor, then vanished at the same blistering speed with which she'd arrived. ...In any case, with Ma Chao leading the Qiang, the left flank wouldn't crumble helplessly. Though I would still need to attach officers and a strategist to support her.
The hour had finally come for Fa Zheng, whom I had recruited in Yi Province, to go to work. Given the caliber of the enemy, a total victory would be difficult—but she would not be crushed and sent reeling in a catastrophic rout.
"Good. Then let's get moving."
Watching Ma Chao dash off into the distance, I rose from my seat, murmuring. Northern tribes, invading in the dead of winter, when an ordinary army could not even manage proper maneuvering. If they had been any other ordinary army, I would have assumed the enemy would fail to overcome the cold and soon march home.
Yes. If they were an "ordinary army."
As I noted a moment ago, the northern tribes are not the sort to bow to the cold. Do you know how cold a Mongolian winter gets? Minus twenty-five degrees is the baseline, and in the cruelest cold snaps it plunges to minus forty—a land of savage, punishing winter. It's no accident these people smashed Russia to pieces.
"Whew..."
The thought wrung a sigh from me, but I steeled myself and set to motion. The Mongol Empire's army was simply immensely powerful—not invincible. ...Ideally, we wouldn't fight them at all, but somehow I doubted things would go that smoothly.