Chapter 80: The Innocent People

Peasants, black with numbers, were driven southward under the lash.

Half-clothed and staggering, they moved like the living dead, while women’s sobs rose ceaselessly from the crowd.

A howling winter wind mingled with their crying, making the whole scene feel like a vision of hell, too pitiful to behold.

Behind them rode armored cavalry, close on their heels. There was no mercy in their eyes; they only waited for the Han people to fill the horse pits, so they could trample over their corpses and slaughter the Ming troops.

"Up ahead are imperial soldiers. If we go forward, we'll all be killed."

When they saw the Ming banners in front of them, the common people felt no joy at all.

The steppe raiders would seize them for slaves, but the imperial troops were no better. They would cut off their heads and claim the dead as enemy kills to earn rewards.

Panic broke out among the crowd. Behind them were dense ranks of mounted raiders; ahead, in their minds, were the fierce and murderous soldiers of the Ming.

Some turned and fled to either side. In moments, more than a dozen plunged into the surging Wuding River, only to be swept away by the frigid current and vanish without a trace.

"Stop them. Force them into the ditch."

With a furious roar, Prince Batu ordered his armored guards forward to block the way.

Hooves churned mud into the air as armored riders slammed into the fleeing people on the flanks, drawing their sabers and hacking without pause.

The stench of blood soaked the earth. Dozens were cut down outright, left barely breathing on the ground.

The rest shrank back into the mass of people, watching the cavalry trample the dead, waving their weapons and shouting threats. With terror written across their faces, they could only move slowly south.

Li Yi watched this and clenched his fists so hard his teeth grated.

He had not imagined the raiders would be so utterly depraved as to use innocent civilians as the vanguard.

Gao Laoshi said in a low voice, "Commander, we can't let the civilians get any closer. They'll be hurt by the horse pits, and they'll also disrupt our formation."

Of course Li Yi understood this.

His gaze turned icy. After a moment's thought, he said to Gao Laoshi, "Bring up all the raider prisoners."

In the two previous battles, they had captured nearly a hundred raiders in all.

Their weapons had been taken and they were locked in a house, guarded by lightly wounded soldiers.

He had done this precisely to guard against the raiders resorting to such filthy tactics.

Soon, more than a hundred prisoners were brought forward.

Deprived of horses and weapons, they were like lambs awaiting slaughter, staring fearfully at the Ming troops around them as they struggled to their knees outside the defensive line.

The Ming soldiers' sudden move left the raiders at a loss.

They gradually slowed, looking at one another in confusion.

Li Yi swung down onto his horse, raised his tiger-tooth spear, and charged forward on horseback. Facing the armored cavalry arrayed in battle formation, he shouted, "Release all the Han people, and I will free the prisoners."

Batu rode forward, cracking his whip as he shouted, "Ignore those cowards! Charge through and kill every Ming dog!"

He finished by nocking an arrow and loosing it at Li Yi.

Li Yi struck the arrow away with a sweep of his spear, then looked past the cavalry to Batu, clad in dark yellow iron armor, and pleaded, "They are only poor civilians. Spare them, and I can give you silver."

"Loose the arrows."

Batu, enraged, paid no attention to Li Yi's plea. With a roar, hundreds of armored riders shot at him at once.

Li Yi parried the incoming arrows with his spear, then looked unwillingly toward the civilians screaming and begging for mercy. He turned his horse and fell back.

Seeing that the demon general of the Ming had not been left behind, Batu lashed Bu Yan across the face in anger and snapped, "Why didn't you shoot?"

Bu Yan stared at him coldly. "He only wants to save those innocent people. If you do this, Batu, you will ruin the name of the Great Khan, and the Buddha will judge you."

Batu leaped down from his horse, seized Bu Yan by the throat, and snarled with a savage expression, "We Mongols are wolves, and the Han are sheep. It is our birthright to eat sheep. Bu Yan, put away that pitiful mercy of yours. If the Buddha brings judgment, you'll go to hell before I do."

Then he shoved Bu Yan away hard and roared, "Drive the Han into the horse pits, then kill them all before the eyes of the Ming dogs."

Since that demon meant to save these people, Batu would make sure he watched them die in front of him.

Arrows fell like rain, and the Ming troops raised shields and doors to defend themselves.

Hundreds of civilians, threatened by spears and blades, were driven into the horse pits.

Terrified beyond measure, they stepped into the pits and were immediately pierced in the soles by hidden spikes, crying out for help.

But the raider cavalry showed not the slightest mercy, forcing the Han civilians onward without pause.

Li Yi watched helplessly as the people trampled one another, cried out, and begged for help, and for a moment it was as though a knife were twisting in his heart.

"Bring them up."

His eyes suddenly turned utterly cold.

The equally frightened raider prisoners were hauled forward. Li Yi looked toward the armored cavalry in the distance and gave a heavy wave of his hand.

Gao Laoshi and the others immediately raised their sabers and, without a trace of mercy, beheaded the raider prisoners.

Li Yi wiped the blood from his face with his hand. The vivid red splashes against his cold gaze made him appear all the more fierce and savage.

Blood gushed from the severed necks, even steaming with white vapor as it pooled on the ground in bright red streams.

The heads rolling in the dirt stared ahead with wide, vacant eyes, eerily uncanny.

The raider prisoners nearby were terrified out of their wits at the sight. They struggled and screamed, desperate to escape, but there was nowhere to run under guard. In their terror, they lost control of their bowels and bladders, flailing like madmen.

The armored cavalry not far away were likewise shaken. Looking at Li Yi's stern, merciless expression, a chill shot from the pit of their hearts to the backs of their skulls, and they all shuddered.

Batu had never expected the imperial troops to slaughter prisoners so suddenly.

He looked at Li Yi in the distance, and a trace of cold fear rose in his own heart, while some of his anger turned to dread.

A raider noble hurried forward and said in a low voice, "Prince Batu, those are valuable lives. There are still more than a dozen armored warriors among them. They are precious beyond price."

Batu was still hesitating. He did not want to take back his order.

But then Li Yi, in the distance, waved once more, and five more raider prisoners were beheaded for all to see.

Watching the morale of the armored cavalry sink, Batu understood that if this went on, his followers would all grow alienated from him.

With no other choice, he finally nodded. "Go tell the Ming troops that I agree."

On the other side, Li Yi wanted to kill another batch of prisoners to intimidate the raiders slaughtering the civilians.

Five raiders were brought forward, and one of them suddenly shouted in the Han tongue, "I am not one of the Tumets. I am only a slave. I have never killed any Han. Please, spare me!"

Li Yi turned to look at him. The raider was so terrified by that cold stare that his legs gave way and he dropped to his knees at once.

As the young soldiers moved to drag him away, the raider cried out in panic, "I'm telling the truth! I am from the Uriankhai people! My ancestors once fought alongside the Ming army. Please, spare me!"

Seeing his expression, Li Yi judged that he was not lying, and asked, "If you are not a Tumed, why are you in their army?"

The raider lowered his head in reverent fear. "Valiant general, we are only ordinary shepherds, grazing sheep for the Great Ming army outside Gubeikou. But the Kharachin people swallowed up our tribe and sold us to Prince Batu."

At that moment another ragged raider dropped to his knees as well and cried, "We have never killed a Han! We learned our Han speech from the mouths of common Han people. My father was Han!"

Li Yi looked at them and saw at once that their clothes were torn, their faces gaunt and yellow, and there were even marks of shackles on their wrists and necks. It seemed what they said was probably true.

He loathed the raiders who slaughtered civilians, raped, and plundered, but he bore no hatred toward ordinary Mongols.

Seeing that these men were only poor common shepherds, he said at once, "Keep them under separate guard. Bring up the real raider prisoners."

The young soldiers hurried off to obey.

The few Uriankhai men wept with excitement, kneeling on the ground to thank Li Yi for his mercy.

Just then, raider cavalry in the distance suddenly rode forward carrying white flags.

"Our prince agrees to exchange civilians for prisoners. We beg you not to slaughter our kinsmen any further."

Hearing this, Li Yi shouted back, "As long as you do not kill Han people, I will not kill prisoners. Exchange them now. Pull your cavalry back and receive the prisoners from the right."

Then he turned to Gao Jie beside him, his gaze sharp and ruthless. "Break the right hand of every prisoner. Do not let them return to the battlefield."

Gao Jie gave a cruel smile and led his men away.

The raider cavalry withdrew. Li Yi promptly ordered the garrison soldiers forward to carry the wounded civilians down.

He also had two narrow lanes laid out to the left and right, to receive the fleeing people and let the raiders depart.

Soon, seven or eight hundred civilians filed in in a panic. Li Yi ordered the camp soldiers to inspect them for rope marks, to guard against raider spies slipping in, and to prepare hot food and straw mats so the people could warm themselves and fill their stomachs.

By the time the last civilian ran inside, all the raider prisoners had also been released.

When Batu heard that the returned members of his tribe had all had their right hands broken and could no longer fight, he was so furious he nearly burst.

"Those vile Ming dogs! I will kill them all and cut off their heads!"

Noble swiftly hunched his neck and did not dare speak.

Only Bu Yan, unable to find his own people among the prisoners, felt his heart sink into an abyss. His face darkened, and his eyes were full of rage and pain.

"Bu Yan, do you still want to spare that Ming demon now?" Batu said with a mocking smile.

Bu Yan gritted his teeth in bitter hatred. "I will kill him and avenge my people."

War was about to break out. The armored cavalry assembled again.

With no Han civilians left to fill the horse pits, they dragged out the bodies of the mounted men they had recovered.

After stripping off the armor, the armored riders surged forward and hurled the corpses into the pits.

The cavalry behind them drew bows and loosed arrows to suppress the Ming counterattack.

The arrows were not killing enough, so Li Yi ordered everyone to throw spears, aiming them at the armored riders rushing forward to fill the pits.

Both sides suffered losses. Men were struck by arrows in quick succession and fell screaming to the ground.

The armor on the cavalry could not stop the spears either, and dozens were shot down.

At the sight of this, Batu felt his heart ache.

These were the elite armored soldiers his grandfather had passed down to him. It was with this army that he had risen to become a powerful Tumed prince. Yet now they were dying in this desolate little town.

"Prince Batu, the horse pits have all been filled. We can attack now," reported a centurion.

Batu slammed a fist hard against the saddle, grinding his teeth and roaring, "Attack! Kill every Ming dog!"

In the exchange of arrows, the armored cavalry had already gauged the Ming troops' strength.

There were only a small number of armored officers; the rest were unarmored garrison troops and nothing to fear.

At Batu's order, the armored soldiers began to gather, forming into three ranks as they prepared to charge the Ming formation.

This was a tactic the Mongols often used, allowing them to outflank the enemy while charging and press them into encirclement, swiftly breaking their lines and then cutting them down in the pursuit.

Seventy armored riders formed a sharp wedge and, led by the centurion, charged straight at the Ming formation.

They meant to smash the formation in one fierce onslaught, rout them, and slaughter them all.