Chapter Sixty-Two: The Fall of Five Cliffs Stronghold

"Lord Li~"

"The Great King has given an order!"

"He commands your division to prepare immediately and, in coordination with the left and right divisions, capture Wuya Fortress before sunset."

Just as Li Xiao led his men outside Wuya Fortress and barely had a moment to catch his breath, he received Xiao Simo's command.

"Damn it~"

After the messenger left, Li Xiao cursed vehemently.

"Damn your sister, Xiao Simo, you are simply inhumane."

There was no doubt that the Han army under Li Xiao's command was being used as cannon fodder.

Capture Wuya Fortress before sunset? Xiao Simo made it sound so effortless.

When the Maiman tribe had previously attacked Wuya Fortress, they besieged it for several days and suffered heavy casualties.

"What should we do, Dalong? The Khitans clearly want to send us to our deaths," Li Dashan said anxiously.

Qin Kaishan and the others shook their heads. Of course they were being used as cannon fodder.

Why else would the Khitans have brought them along?

Who told them they weren't Xiao Simo's direct subordinates?

If they didn't make the Hans and other nomadic tribes go first, did Xiao Simo expect to exhaust the troops of his own Six Bureaus?

Having fought wars alongside the Khitans all their lives, Qin Kaishan and the others had experienced this sort of thing too many times to get angry anymore.

Being treated like a stepchild's offspring was simply the way things were.

The Khitans had always treated these irregular troops as expendable cannon fodder.

However, Li Xiao had no intention of letting his men die in vain, and he let out a cold snort.

"Since Xiao Simo is acting inhumanely, I, Li Xiao, won't be humane either."

"Pass down the order. Let the Zhelan people go first."

Using cannon fodder was a game everyone could play!

Li Xiao had his own supply, too.

This military campaign had brought along more than three hundred Zhelan people precisely for situations like this.

"Tell those Zhelan people,"

"Whoever breaks into Wuya Fortress first will be granted freedom from slavery and rewarded with fifty sheep," Li Xiao commanded in a deep voice.

Then, turning his gaze to Erhu, he said, "Organize a督战队 [enforcement squad] and follow right behind the Zhelan people."

"Anyone who dares to shrink from battle or flee the battlefield is to be shot on the spot."

"Understood!" Erhu nodded heavily and turned to leave.

"Wooo-ooo-ooo-ooo~"

"Wooo-ooo-ooo~"

Low, mournful horn calls echoed across the earth, and the Eastern Capital army's assault began.

Tribes such as Wolijian, Halatu, and Hechila stood fully prepared, riding their warhorses as they charged toward Wuya Fortress.

The initial phase was naturally a probing attack. As they neared the trenches, these cavalrymen immediately unleashed a volley of arrows.

Then, wheeling their horses around, they advanced toward the flanks, galloping along the perimeter of the trenches for ranged archery.

On the other side, the more than three hundred slaves of the Zhelan tribe were also driven forward toward Wuya Fortress under the threat of the Hexi cavalry's bows and arrows.

Yet, as Han landlords of Jinzhou, they still held a certain advantage after all.

When Li Xiao had set out, he brought along more than a dozen wagons, and now they finally came in useful.

By mounting a wooden plank to the front of each wagon, they had jury-rigged makeshift shielding carts.

The Zhelan people used these wagons to push rubble and dirt, enduring the Maiman tribe's arrows as they inched forward to fill the trenches.

"Ah-ah-ah~"

Outside Wuya Fortress, screams of agony rang out continuously.

As the attacking side, they were bound to suffer the disadvantage, and the casualties of the Eastern Capital army far exceeded those of the Maiman tribe.

Fortunately, the sheer number of troops in the Eastern Capital army still exerted immense pressure on the Maiman tribe.

"Which division's troops are those? They are shockingly fierce."

On a distant high slope, Xiao Simo surveyed the battlefield, and seeing the Zhelan people, he could not help asking with curiosity.

"This? It seems to be the Zhelan people~"

A Khitan general replied with some uncertainty.

Another expressed bewilderment: "Weren't the Zhelan people wiped out by the Hans?"

Only then did everyone realize the truth—the Hans had played the role of middlemen, using the Zhelan people as cannon fodder.

"Great King, the Zhelan tribe belongs to our Yinshan mountains. For them to be seized and used as slaves by the Hans is utterly outrageous,"

Xiao Tutuoluo said. "We should order the Hans to release these Zhelan people immediately."

"Forget it," Xiao Simo gently shook his head.

"The rules of the grasslands are what they are. Once the Zhelan tribe was defeated, they became the slaves of the Hans. If we snatch them away, we violate the rules."

"Besides, they are merely a few hundred Zhelan people; they aren't worth alienating the Hans."

What Xiao Simo cared about was whose utility value was higher, and the upcoming battles would still require the support of the Hans.

To put it mildly, if the fighting with the Naimans reached a stalemate and the army's dried meat and grain supplies were exhausted,

and if there were no opportunities to plunder the Naimans, the Hans of Jinzhou would be needed to supply the army with cattle, sheep, and grain.

"Go tell Li Xiao that before sunset, I want to see him inside Wuya Fortress," Xiao Simo ordered his personal guards.

Do not assume that by using the Zhelan people as cannon fodder, the Hans could slack off and skimp on effort.

Xiao Simo was not someone easily fooled.

Moreover, in this battle, he wanted to test Li Xiao's true capabilities,

to see if he was truly qualified to be promoted into his own inner circle of trusted arms.

Outside Wuya Fortress, listening to Xiao Simo's command, Li Xiao gave a slight shake of his head.

In the end, there was no escaping it!

"Working for someone else certainly feels different," Li Xiao sighed softly.

When they launched a night raid on Sanhe Fortress previously, it was to safeguard the security of Hexi Fortress, so naturally everyone fought with their lives on the line.

Yet now, with Khitans ruling over them as masters, Li Xiao found himself thinking instead of how to preserve his own strength and avoid excessive losses.

He glanced at the sky. The sun was beginning its descent, casting a golden glow across the land.

In at most half an hour, day would turn completely to night.

"Let's go. It's our turn to take the stage."

Clad in full armor, Li Xiao shouted loudly to the Han troops of the seven fortresses behind him.

"Charge~"

By now, the Zhelan assault had achieved a certain degree of success.

A section of the trench was on the verge of being filled.

At Li Xiao's command, more than a dozen heavily armored Han soldiers, divided into three groups, each pushed a wagon.

Atop each wagon rested a massive log.

A makeshift ram!

The dozen armored Han troops pushed these battering rams forward, enduring the archery of the Karluks as they rushed across the trenches filled in by the Zhelan people, utilizing the momentum of their charge.

The massive logs slammed heavily into the battlements of Wuya Fortress.

"Boom~"

"Boom~"

"Boom~"

Accompanied by three deafening crashes, that section of Wuya Fortress's battlements collapsed instantly.

Against Central Plains city walls, such a method would certainly have failed to achieve this effect.

However, the battlements of Wuya Fortress were constructed entirely of rubble and rammed earth, standing barely a meter high.

They were utterly incapable of withstanding the impact of the battering rams.

"Brothers, the battlements are breached!"

"Follow me and charge inside."

Gripping his horse-lance, Li Xiao shouted loudly to the cavalry behind him.

"Charge~"

More than a thousand cavalrymen from the seven fortresses surged forward instantly, initiating their charge. Warhorses roared, kicking up rolling billows of dust, while weapons clashed and shrieked, endlessly staining with the blood of the Karluks.

Charging at the very forefront, Li Xiao broke into Wuya Fortress within a matter of moments.

His horse-lance whirled madly, and any Karluk within a two-meter radius of him was pierced right through in an instant.

Erhu and the others followed closely behind, harvesting Karluk lives with spears and sabers.

"Uncle Nierun~"

"Uncle Nierun~"

A Karluk youth named Luoga cried out tearfully as he shook the old herdsman's corpse, but the youth's chest had been pierced by a Han arrow, and he would never see that hearty smile again.

"Ah~"

Before Luoga could finish crying out, the shriek of another man rang out not far away.

"Big Brother Wuguli~"

In terror, the Karluk youth watched as Wuguli—who had just been giving him stern advice moments ago and boasting of riding across the northern frontiers—was pierced through the chest by a Han soldier with a horse-lance.

Blood gushed from his wounds as his body crashed heavily from his horse.

"Thud~"

Li Xiao nimbly withdrew his horse-lance, glancing sideways at the vengeful Karluk youth.

His warhorse surged forward once more, and within a mere few breaths, the horse-lance swept down to sever the youth's head.

The world spun before Luoga's eyes as darkness slowly enveloped him.

Reflected in his fading gaze was Li Xiao's visage—a face that seemed ridiculously young, scarcely older than Luoga's own years.

Yet why was his heart so venomously cruel, why did he slaughter their tribesmen without a shred of restraint?

Was he a demon?

Luoga cried out in the depths of his agonizing despair.

"Report~"

"Great King, the Han division of Jinzhou has broken into Wuya Fortress."

A messenger rode up swiftly on horseback to report the news to Xiao Simo.

In truth, standing upon the high slope, Xiao Simo had been closely monitoring the situation of the Hans all along.

He had not only witnessed the Hans break into Wuya Fortress, but also saw Li Xiao, clad in full armor, charge into the midst of the Karluks as though entering an empty courtyard.

His horse-lance whipped about, continuously harvesting the lives of the Karluks.

Raising his gaze once more to the horizon, the sun still showed the top of its head, spilling golden radiance across Xiao Simo's face with a warm and comfortable glow.

"This kid is not bad at all."

"He doesn't waste Aman's high regard for him, always speaking so glowingly of him in my presence."

"Heh~"

Xiao Simo nodded in satisfaction.

At this point, none of the other tribes had even managed to reach the edge of Wuya Fortress, yet Li Xiao had already led his men to shatter the stronghold.

Not only was his personal prowess formidable and valiant in combat, but the Han cavalry under his command displayed no weaker combat capability.

Within Xiao Simo's heart, the weight he accorded to Li Xiao quietly ascended to another level.