“Quick, someone, the captives are escaping!” a Dening soldier roared frantically.
The camp guards, busy fighting the fire, had no idea where their sabres were. By the time they scrambled to find them, all the Dangxiang captives had been freed, with one or two hundred armed with weapons brought by Black Dog and his group.
“Azhuo, take your battalion to seize the horses. The rest, follow me to regroup outside the weapons depot!” a Dangxiang officer swiftly directed his men into combat mode.
The Dening Army, meanwhile, was in complete disarray. The Dangxiang, hailing from nomadic tribes that revered warriors, possessed combat skills and awareness far superior to the pampered Dening soldiers. A single charge by over a hundred Dangxiang captives, starved for days while strung up, routed three hundred Dening guards, who fled in panic.
At that moment, Zhang Qiwei, in the main tent, had just pulled on his trousers. Rushing out, he met several Dening officers reporting the situation.
“What’s going on?” Zhang Qiwei asked urgently, slipping on his shoes.
“General, the reserve camp caught fire, and the Dangxiang captives escaped in the chaos,” the deputy replied, still tying his waistband, having just leapt from bed like Zhang Qiwei.
“How could this happen?” Zhang Qiwei’s face turned grim. A fire was manageable, but losing the captives was disastrous.
“Why are you standing here? Take men and suppress them!” Zhang Qiwei snapped, itching to slap the deputy.
“Yes, sir!” The deputy, trousers half-on, ran off.
But the Dening Army’s response was sluggish. Not only Zhang Qiwei and the deputy, but most soldiers were still clueless about the situation, many standing barefoot at their tents, gawking. By the time the deputy rallied two battalions, the Dangxiang had seized the weapons depot and the horse camp.
Though the captives had been strung up for days, their horses had been well cared for, as Zhang Qiwei had planned to form a cavalry unit with them. Once mounted, the Dangxiang’s combat strength soared. A single charge scattered the thousand-plus Dening soldiers painstakingly gathered. The deputy commanding them was cut down on the spot.
Without a commander, the Dening Army’s morale collapsed. Facing the Dangxiang’s renewed charge, not one soldier resisted; they all turned and fled. On the battlefield, fleeing meant exposing your back to the enemy, leaving life or death to a fleeting moment. The Dangxiang, familiar with such scenes, gleefully swung their sabres, reaping lives. In mere minutes, nearly half of the thousand-plus Dening soldiers were killed, the rest fleeing into woods or areas cavalry couldn’t easily reach, devoid of fighting spirit.
Only then did the remaining thousand Dening soldiers grasp what had happened. But with the weapons depot taken, they had no arms or armour to resist, so they too fled without hesitation.
The prisoner camp became a chaotic mess: Dangxiang cavalry galloping and slashing, Dening soldiers scattering in panic, and bewildered Han slaves.
“Stop running!” Zhang Qiwei grabbed a fleeing soldier, shouting, “Where’s your sabre? Pick it up and fight!”
The soldier, desperate to escape, shoved his general aside and darted into the woods.
“Where’s the enforcement team? Drag that bastard back! I’ll flay him alive!” Zhang Qiwei roared. But only his aides remained; the enforcement team had long vanished.
“General, go now, or it’ll be too late,” an aide urged, bringing a horse and whipping it hard to send Zhang Qiwei galloping away.
The general’s flight signalled the Dening Army’s complete rout. Zhang Qiwei glanced back at the camp, a torrent of emotions flooding him. The Iron Forest Army was Qing Huai’s foundation, just as the Dening Army was his. He had come to Clearwater Valley hoping to piggyback on the Iron Forest Army’s victories for some merit, but instead, he lost everything. Three thousand Dening soldiers, routed by a few hundred starved Dangxiang cavalry.
The more Zhang Qiwei thought, the more aggrieved he felt. Why did the Iron Forest Army cut through the Dangxiang like vegetables, while his Dening Army was crushed in return? It all came down to that man, Jin Feng. When Qing Huai led the Iron Forest Army, they never dared face the Dangxiang cavalry head-on. Only after Jin Feng took command did they achieve sweeping victories.
Being defeated by the Dangxiang wasn’t shameful; countless Great Kang generals had lost to them, and none mocked another. But now, with Jin Feng’s victories and captured prisoners, Zhang Qiwei’s failure to guard them made him look like a useless fool. How would he explain this to General Fan, his family, or the emperor?
In that moment, Zhang Qiwei’s heart burned with resentment toward the Iron Forest Army and Jin Feng, silently wishing the Dangxiang would annihilate them and kill Jin Feng.
In fact, the Dangxiang captives had already stormed the Iron Forest Army’s camp. The army’s main defences focused on Clearwater Valley, unprepared for an attack from behind. Caught off guard, the rear camp’s guards didn’t hold long before the Dangxiang broke through. Infantry were naturally disadvantaged against cavalry, and the Iron Forest Army’s rear defences crumbled.
Charging into the camp, the Dangxiang commander shouted in excitement, spotting a large pile of sharpened bamboo stakes, many tipped with dried blood, and stacks of massive shields nearby. He realised this was the Iron Forest Army’s weapons depot. Hadn’t they been captured because of the Iron Forest Army’s strange formation? Without the bamboo and shields, how could they form it again?
“Ashuo, take men and burn those bamboo stakes and shields!” the commander bellowed.
Ashuo and his men tossed dry grass onto the bamboo pile and set it ablaze.
Jin Feng reacted faster than Zhang Qiwei. Hearing the commotion from the rear camp, he rushed from his tent without dressing. Zhong Wu, Zhao Lao, and Xu Xiao soon joined him.
“General, the Dangxiang are attacking. The rear camp is overrun,” Xu Xiao reported immediately.
“How did they get behind us?” Zhong Wu asked, puzzled.
“Why else? The Dening Army failed to guard the captives!” Zhao Lao fumed. “I knew Zhang Qiwei was an idiot, but not this incompetent. We handed them the bound captives, and they still lost them.”
