Nightfall

The attack on the grassland cavalryies was a perfect victory. When cleaning up the battlefield, Yang Erxi, who killed three people and injured two, was qualified to be the first to select loot from the dead enemies.

The wealth plundered by these cavalries would naturally be handed over to the court for a unified handling. The so-called booty was nothing but armors and weapons.

However, for those former Tang soldiers, the leather armour of the grassland cavalry was like shabby fig leaves, arousing no interest in them. So their target could only be those blades and arrows.

Yang Erxi wanted a cutlass.

His pitch-fork was sharp enough to kill and he had already got used to it after so many battles. But as a farm tool used for weeding, it was still inconvenient.

Before they left the military camp, Tang soldiers were able to exchange years of service and their daily record of merits for the honor of bringing home their carry-on weapons. No one would have the heart to abandon their weapons which accompanied them for years. So the majority would choose exchange them, till it became a tradition in Tang Army.

Yang Erxi was known for his shooting in the army, so he chose to take his boxwood bow and leave his saber in the army. However, he felt unhappy now when he found his companions were all armed with sabers taken from the camp.

So he wanted one too.

The two grassland cavalries who were shot at first lost their weapons, so Yang Erxi asked his companions to leave the last cavalry soldier to him.

He joined his hands together in salute and thank to those considerate companions. Then he picked up the cutlass beside the dead cavalryman and practiced it. It was much better than the pitch-fork though he was not accustomed to it.

With a sharp and good cutlass, he felt the pitch-fork was ugly and clumsy. However, after reflecting for a time, he still could not bear to throw it away. He then continued to carry it on the shoulder and walked into the forest.

After a while, he came out of the woods, with a black object swinging on the pitch-fork. A closer look revealed that it was a trotter left from the roast pork leg taken from home.

After looking at it for so many days, his companions finally could not help but joke about him. “Erxi, you either stew the trotter or throw it away. Why on earth do you always hang it on the pitch-fork?”

Yang Erxi did not listen to them. “My wife cooked it for me.” he said, “I have to eat it slowly. She added a lot of salt when she prepared it and smoked it with pine and cypress branches. So it will not go bad.”

His companions laughed loudly. Nobody was interested in that poor trotter.

Yang Erxi felt that there was noise behind him. He turned around to see a little hand gently pulling his clothes. It was the little girl who had nearly been hacked to death by the grassland cavalry.

Looking at her dirty face, he recalled her daughter and comforted her, “Don’t worry. Let’s drive away all those bad guys tomorrow.”

The little girl didn’t come to talk to him. There was no fear but some light in her eyes and a bright streak of saliva was at the corner of her mouth.

Yang Erxi looked down at her eyes only to find that she had been staring at the trotter hanging on the pitch-fork.

The little girl’s longing eyes kept moving with the swing of the trotter, which were so lovely and pitiful.

He thought carefully, then took off the trotter and gave it to the girl.

The girl smiled happily. She wiped the saliva off her mouth and bowed her thanks. Then she ran to her grandma while shouting something.

A companion came over and said, “Her family was killed. Only she and her grandma survived by hiding in the cellar.”

Looking at the little girl’s back, Yang Erxi said nothing.

They left half of their food to the refugees in the village. Besides, they drew a simple map to let them know that there was a temporary yamen of the Imperial Court 5 miles away in the southwest which was responsible for gathering the refugees to withdraw.

After that, they left the village with over twenty uninjured horses.

The next morning, these retired Tang soldiers joined the main forces.

“Nice going, Yang Erxi. You got a cutlass so quickly.”

The cavalry officer looked at him and said.

Yang Erxi said smugly, “It’s nothing. But it was indeed not easy to kill the three barbarians. By the way, if it was not me unwilling to take credit, the two badly injured cavalry soldiers should also be added on my account.”

The cavalry laughed and said, “Well, well. I will report to the commander to record a merit.”

“Don’t forget that I was a border soldier in the second year of the Tianqi era. Watch your tone!”

Yang Erxi taunted. Then he shouldered his pitch-fork and went into the forest with his companions.

The cavalry lightly kicked the horse and headed to a hillside along another road. He went to the commander’s mount and whispered about the military intelligence he had just received.

Liu Si, commander of the Valiant Cavalry Battalion, nodded seriously and gave the cavalry a sign to leave. Then he looked at the middle-aged man beside him and said, “Long Qing has speeded up, so he just missed us.”

The middle-aged man in black clothes looked serene. He was extremely eye-catching among hundreds of stern cavalries of the Valiant Cavalry Battalion. He was Chao Xiaoshu.

Chao Xiaoshu said, “Long Qing is too anxious and the defense of the county too weak.”

Liu Si said, “The garrison troops of the county could fight on foot. However, faced with those field-tested grassland cavalries, they could do nothing at all. They’ve done their best.”

“I did not mean to blame them.” Chao Xiaoshu said, “Among all local forces of these counties, the Gushan Commandery has real military capability. As the military manager of three states, Hua Shanyue did a good job. But most of his troops have been moved to the Northern Military Camp to prevent the Golden Palace from moving southward. So we can’t count on him either.”

Liu Si was a little depressed. He, with Chao Xiaoshu, led eight hundred picked cavalries from the Valiant Cavalry Battalion to leave Chang’an for the Eastern Border. They had experienced all hardships and dangers on the way and fought several times with grassland cavalry, but failed to change the situation fundamentally.

They did not even dare to confront Long Qing’s main force for the lack of enough soldiers.

“Don’t worry too much. Although we could do nothing but harass and chase to attack, we can make those barbarians less presumptuous and the people at the Eastern Border would be less harmed.”

With that, he looked at the volunteer soldiers disappearing in the forest and said with respect, “It would really be beyond control without them.”

There were many people like Yang Erxi.

Many farmers left their farmlands and homes to be here. They came to the remote Eastern Border with some travelling expenses, luggage and knives or bows and arrows taken from the military years ago.

At that time, they set out before the court’s conscription order came to their hometown. It was technically unwise of them to do so since they were not organized and did not even know where the battlefield was.

However, this time it was different. It was about Tang’s future. So the news of the invasion of foreign enemies was equal to the military order and the conscription order. As long as they encountered someone who was armed with an old knife or bow, they could be sure that the person was their companion. In this way, a powerful force was gradually formed.

Where was the battlefield? Where the enemy was, there was a battlefield.

This was Yang Erxi’s idea as well as that of his companions.

According to post-war statistics, in the central states of the Tang Empire, over twenty thousand retired Tang soldiers volunteered to join the war at the Eastern Border against the aggression before the arrival of the conscription order.

Among these earliest and most lovely counterattacks, less than half of them had made their way back home in the end.