The Tang soldiers in the fortress shot arrows downward one after another, while the Tujue cavalry sprang into action, circling the fortress at high speed, making it very difficult for the Tang soldiers’ arrows to hit them.

“Stop now!”

William Sutton immediately sensed something was wrong and shouted, “Stop shooting! Save the arrows for me!”

The fortress instantly fell silent. The Tang soldiers stopped shooting and looked anxiously at the fierce Tujue warriors below. These were enemies ten times their number—could they survive this ordeal?

Chapter 8: Killing at a Hundred Paces

Behind a huge boulder two li away, Andrew Thompson watched the hundreds of Tujue cavalry in the flickering firelight. This was the first challenge he had faced since coming to the Tang.

But the enemy had over five hundred men. Andrew Thompson glanced back at his own men—counting himself, there were only four. Could they each take on a hundred?

Andrew Thompson quickly ran through all the historical examples he knew of the few defeating the many, but none of that knowledge seemed to fit the situation before him. Without courage, any classic example was just an empty vase.

“Take off one of your quivers and give it to me!”

The Tang soldiers were stunned. Eric Brooks hurriedly tried to dissuade him, “Squad leader, you can’t take such a risk! They’re regular Tujue troops, not ordinary herdsmen. We should wait for reinforcements from Bahuan City!”

“It’ll take at least two days for reinforcements from Bahuan City to get here. By then, the fortress will have been flattened. Give me the quiver!”

The others had no choice but to hand a quiver to Andrew Thompson. Brian Foster hesitated and said, “Squad leader, let me go with you!”

“No need. I’ll be more flexible on my own.”

He patted Brian Foster on the shoulder and smiled, “Xiao He, teach me a phrase in Turkic—how do you say ‘there’s an emergency’?”

“乌伦马妁不迦罗。”

“Got it. You all wait for me at a distance. Don’t risk following me.”

Andrew Thompson hung five quivers on his horse, spurred it, and quickly galloped southwest.

The Tujue had sent scouts to the north to watch for Tang reinforcements, posting sentries at the southwest and southeast corners five li away. Under cover of darkness, Andrew Thompson gradually approached the sentry at the southwest corner. His horse was tied to a willow tree, and a Tujue cavalryman sat beneath it drinking water. In the dim light, he looked very tall and had no sense that danger was near.

Behind a large rock sixty paces away, Andrew Thompson took out the seven-stone hard bow he had bought in Bahuan City. He had shot at targets, trees, and animals before, but this was his first time shooting at a person.

He slowly drew the bow, biting his lip until it nearly bled. Taking a deep breath to steady his pounding heart, he aimed the long arrow at the yawning, gaping mouth, slowly drawing the bowstring to its full length. With a release, the wolf-tooth arrow shot out like lightning, its force tremendous. With a muffled “thud!”, the Tujue sentry was shot through the mouth, the arrowhead bursting out the back of his skull. He died instantly, pinned to the tree without even a scream.

Andrew Thompson’s back was drenched in sweat, but he had no time to dwell on the feeling of killing. He rushed forward, quickly stripped the sentry’s outer clothes and put them on himself, took the man’s hat and put it on, then dragged the body deep into the bushes. Only then did he cut the reins tying the horse to the tree and disappear into the darkness with the horse.

……

The bloody battle had already begun. The Tang soldiers rained arrows down like a storm, shooting densely at the Tujue below the fortress. Corpses piled up at the base of the fortress; dozens of Tujue had been shot dead, but the enemy behind them pressed forward, fearless of death. They were determined to take the fortress. Another fifty Tujue charged forward, carrying bags of earth to fill in a trench in front of the main gate.

In the distance, more than two hundred Tujue cavalry fired arrows from horseback. The rain of arrows was dense; most struck the stone walls, but some made it into the fortress, causing casualties among the Tang soldiers.

William Sutton’s eyes were bloodshot as he shouted and cursed, directing the Tang soldiers to shoot the enemy. “Over here, shoot over here! There, shoot that tall officer, damn it! You missed—did you grow up eating shit?”

William Sutton slapped a Tang soldier aside, drew his own bow, but the tall Tujue officer had disappeared. Furious, he loosed an arrow at random and cursed, “Damn it! There are fat sheep and women in the south to rob, but they insist on coming here to rob us. These Tujue are crazy!”

Suddenly, he saw dozens of Tujue cavalry dragging a battering ram. He froze for a moment, then involuntarily took two steps back, grinning and muttering to himself, “It’s over. My life is going to end here today. The beauties of the Eastern Capital, the beauties of Chang’an—Old Li won’t get to see you again.”

……

“Smash it open!”

In the flickering firelight, the Tujue leader David Morris was furious, pointing at the stone fortress gate and roaring. For a single gemstone, he had already lost more than sixty men, and he hadn’t even seen a trace of the gem. He was starting to feel the loss—these battle-hardened men were worth more than any gem.

“Kill them all! Leave no Tang soldier alive!”

Twenty men carried the battering ram and charged at the fortress gate, while dozens of Tujue on either side raised their shields high to protect them, looking like a giant centipede.