Chapter 148: The Homicidal Madman

The massive army pitched camp.

In the central command tent, Huang Chunhui's fits of coughing caused anyone passing by outside to worry deeply.

"Cough, cough, cough, cough!"

Even though tender green shoots had already begun to sprout from the earth, the northern climate remained bitterly cold and dry.

Huang Chunhui took a sip of hot water and said with a sigh of relief, "I'm old. I've endured the passing years, but I can't outlast the biting wind and cold. I just hope I don't pass this illness on to you."

Liao Jing was tending to a small clay stove and looked up. "I'm holding up well enough, old friend."

He poured himself a cup of hot tea and sipped it slowly.

"Actually, this campaign should already be enough to report back to Chang'an."

Huang Chunhui shook his head, his face etched with fatigue. "A single small walled city is not enough of an achievement. Those people back there would seize the opportunity to stir up trouble."

Liao Jing inhaled the steam rising from his tea. "Unless Chang'an is determined to wage a full-scale war against Northern Liao, attacking heavily fortified cities yields losses that outweigh the gains. Yet, if we fight them in the open field, our numbers are far too few."

He glanced at Huang Chunhui. "Lin Ya has come leading a hundred thousand troops, while our forces number eighty thousand. The outcome of this battle is completely unpredictable. However, we here in the Northern Frontier cannot afford to take such risks."

"I know," Huang Chunhui said, his eyelids drooping. "Do you think I decided to engage Lin Ya in a decisive battle merely to appease Chang'an?"

"Isn't that the reason?"

"Of course not."

"Commissioner..."

Huang Chunhui took another sip of hot water.

"Ever since I took office as the Military Commissioner of the Northern Frontier, Northern Liao has been growing steadily stronger."

"While Northern Liao continues to expand its strength, the Northern Frontier can only desperately struggle to maintain the status quo."

"Do you really think Chang'an wants to see the Northern Frontier match Northern Liao in strength?"

"Once the Northern Frontier becomes a match for Northern Liao, old Liao, wouldn't Chang'an start worrying that the Northern Frontier might turn its gaze toward the Great Tang and strike back?"

"Some say we have been utterly loyal, so why are we subjected to such suspicion?"

"Yet suspicion is simply the inherent nature of an emperor."

"That is precisely why the funds and provisions allocated to the Northern Frontier are always kept at this exact level—just enough to keep us neither fully satisfied nor starving."

"Over the past few years, whenever Northern Liao provoked us in various ways, I simply kept the gates shut and refused to engage. Was it because I was cowardly?"

"It wasn't that I couldn't fight back, but that I simply must not."

"Yet after years of playing it safe, I worry that the blood of our soldiers is growing cold, and even worse, I fear they might develop a deep-seated dread of Northern Liao."

"Therefore, I have resolved to fight a decisive battle against the enemy."

Liao Jing frowned. "Northern Liao fields hundreds of thousands of troops. I am deeply concerned about what comes after..."

"Indeed! That is what worries me as well."

"Old Liao, you remember the rebellion within the city of Ningxing late last year, don't you?"

"I remember it clearly!"

"Northern Liao may appear formidable on the surface, but it has fatal weaknesses. There are internal strife and factional disputes within Northern Liao, and some wish to overthrow the rule of the Helian clan."

"That rebellion at the end of the year left Helian Feng furious. If he launches his entire army now, won't he be worried that someone might stab him in the back?"

"I want to take a gamble."

"I am betting that Helian Feng, wary of the rebels behind him, will not dare to commit his entire national strength to the field!"

At that moment, Huang Chunhui's gaze was as sharp as lightning!

"Does he dare to gamble the fate of his nation?!"

Bang!

His teacup slammed down onto the low desk.

Huang Chunhui said with unyielding resolve, "I bet he wouldn't dare!"

...

"The Northern Liao army is approaching."

As the main commander of the Chenzhou forces, Liu Qing's tent was quite spacious.

Zhang Lichun, Yang Xuan, and the others were gathered inside.

Although the tent was large, it still couldn't accommodate a separate desk for everyone, so most of them stood.

Liu Qing sat, tilting his head up to look at them.

"Lin Ya is a veteran general of Northern Liao... Sit down, everyone."

As they took their seats, Liu Qing finally seemed more at ease.

"An army of a hundred thousand is rolling toward us, so naturally they cannot clump together to fight. The central army will form the core, and where our Left Guard-Marshal Army will be deployed is yet to be decided. Before that happens, all of you must return and brief your men."

Everyone straightened up in their seats.

Liu Qing spoke in a measured tone, "If this battle is lost, our Northern Frontier's main force will inevitably suffer devastating losses. Northern Liao will seize the momentum to sweep across the north. The Great Tang will be shaken to its core, and reinforcements will be hastily pulled from every corner of the empire. Meanwhile, states like Southern Zhou will take advantage of the chaos, plunging the entire Great Tang into perilous danger. Therefore, let your men know: this is a war for the survival of the realm."

"Understood."

"Dismissed."

Yang Xuan returned to his own quarters.

He sat down and said, "This battle is of the utmost importance. Make sure the brothers understand that."

Someone looked a little perplexed. "Shouldn't we be telling them to fight for their lives?"

Yang Xuan shook his head. "There's no need for that."

After everyone else had cleared out, the old scout lowered his voice. "My lord, this subordinate noticed earlier that several people were trying to plead for promotion with Military Commissioner Liu."

"Who were they?"

"The very ones eyeing the positions of Vice Prefect and Prefect."

Yang Xuan fell silent.

The old scout continued, "My lord mentioned before that Taiping is a fine place, but if you wish to rise further... you must govern an entire prefecture, or perhaps even set your sights on the entire Northern Frontier. If my lord wishes to achieve such ambitions, the first step is to take up an official post in Chenzhou. But to be relegated to some powerless, insignificant minor official there—that would be far worse than simply staying in Taiping."

"Our Taiping Army must shine in this battle," Yang Xuan said. "Only by demonstrating the exceptional prowess of the Taiping Army to Military Commissioner Liu, and even to those officials in Tao County, will we leave them with an impressive and lasting impression."

When vacancies opened up in the future, those people would naturally think of him first.

The old scout lowered his voice further. "The Northern Frontier faces Northern Liao directly. If one wishes to be promoted, aside from seniority, military merit is everything."

Outside the Taiping Army's camp, several soldiers were discussing the impending battle.

"An army of a hundred thousand against our eighty thousand—this battle is going to be brutally bloody."

"Indeed!"

"Hey! What are those guys over there up to?"

A group of Taiping Army soldiers was clustered together, talking animatedly with beaming expressions.

Someone asked, "Hey! Why are they looking so cheerful?"

A soldier snorted, "Those bastards are always cheerful."

"We're about to go to war."

"War is war."

"Aren't you scared?"

"Scared my ass!"

The Taiping soldiers burst into laughter.

"Those old rogues will probably cower in the back when the fighting starts."

"Don't talk nonsense."

"What do you mean?"

"They're the ones who captured Hongcheng City."

"Damn! They were the ones who took Hongcheng?"

...

The enemy forces continued to advance closer and closer.

The scouts of both sides clashed first.

The Left Guard-Marshal Army sortied once more, covering their own scouts and screening the left flank of the main army.

A squad of scouts withdrew from the frontlines.

Only five of them remained.

Every single one of them was wounded.

"How did it go?" the old scout asked.

A scout replied, "We left seven brothers behind."

The old scout bowed his head slightly.

"But we left nine of theirs behind!"

The scouts held their heads high as they walked past.

Yet some of them could not hold back their tears, hastily reaching out to wipe them away.

When brothers who shared life and death every day fell in battle, how could anyone not feel sorrow?

Yet once the grief passed, everyone still had to fight desperately—for themselves, for the Northern Frontier, and for the Great Tang.

"The enemy vanguard is thirty miles away from our camp!"

The tense atmosphere before the battle reached a fever pitch.

Liu Qing repeatedly dispatched scouts to probe ahead, and Yang Xuan's detachment was among them.

"Promotions and rewards will be based on severed enemy heads."

To boost morale before the battle, Liu Qing offered a remarkably generous bounty.

"A single enemy head... ten copper coins!"

Ten copper coins were not even enough for wealthy men and aristocrats to buy a single meal or make a single garment, but it was more than enough to drive these common soldiers to risk their lives.

Wang Lao'er was also tempted.

He huddled with the old scout, whispering back and forth. Yang Xuan only caught fragments of their conversation about how much an enemy head was worth and how much meat it could buy...

Later that evening, Wang Lao'er came to find Yang Xuan.

"My lord, I want to go kill people."

"It's killing the enemy, not killing people," Yang Xuan corrected, looking at him. "Who are you going with?"

"The old scout."

The old scout grinned sheepishly from the side.

Yang Xuan wore a stern expression. "You're the only one who would humor him in such nonsense."

The old scout chuckled.

Wang Lao'er looked at Yang Xuan with wide, hopeful eyes. "Heads mean meat."

"You are not allowed to go too deep!"

The old scout and Wang Lao'er set out.

Yang Xuan initially figured it was just a trip for them to stretch their legs and blow off some steam.

By the time a returning squad of scouts reported to him that Wang Lao'er had gone completely berserk with the killing, even Yang Xuan was dumbfounded.

"Where are they?"

Yang Xuan stood outside the camp, craning his neck in anticipation.

Yet neither the large nor the small figure was anywhere to be seen.

The second squad of scouts returned.

"Prefect Yang, do you happen to have someone named Wang Lao'er in your unit?"

"Yes! Have you seen him?"

"We saw him," the scout said with a look of utter awe. "Truly a mighty warrior!"

Using fancy literary praise like that, of all times.

What on earth had that idiot Wang Lao'er gotten himself into?

And why hadn't the old scout reined him in?

Yang Xuan was so irritated he felt like riding out himself to drag them back by the ears.

If anything happened to Wang Lao'er, Yiniang would undoubtedly skin the old scout alive.

He had no idea that Wang Lao'er had undergone a strange transformation at that very moment.

The old scout and Wang Lao'er had ridden out of the main camp with a dozen cavalrymen, heading straight north.

Their first encounter was against a squad of enemy scouts engaged in a skirmish with their own side.

There was no hesitation; the old scout gave a shout, and the men swarmed forward.

Wang Lao'er's movements were a bit sluggish, and he almost took a slash to the chest. It scared the old scout so much afterwards that he felt the boy's forehead, worrying the child had developed a fever.

Wang Lao'er didn't have a fever. His movements alternated between fast and slow, his brow furrowed deeply as if he were contemplating the profound meaning of life and death.

After routing that enemy squad, the troop continued onward.

When they encountered another squad of enemy scouts, Wang Lao'er still wore that same vacant expression.

The old scout felt a twinge of retreat and urged, "Let's rout these ones and head back!"

Wang Lao'er looked up, muttering, "My meat!"

The old scout cursed, "Do you want your life or your meat?"

Wang Lao'er froze, murmuring blankly, "Do you want your life or your meat?"

An enemy soldier seized the moment to slash at him with a saber.

"Lao'er!"

Seeing him still lost in thought, the old scout cried out in alarm.

Wang Lao'er raised his head. "So it was all fake after all!"

With that, he swung his blade.

The flash of steel was like a streak of lightning.

It was too fast to track with the naked eye.

An enemy head flew into the air. Wang Lao'er caught it in mid-air and tossed it to the old scout.

"Keep my meat safe."

He spurred his horse and charged forward alone.

One man against an entire squad of scouts.

Blades flashed.

Screams of agony...

No.

There were no screams of agony.

Only gasps of pure terror.

Enemy heads tumbled to the ground one after another as Wang Lao'er carved a bloody path straight ahead.

When he finally broke completely through their formation, the surviving enemy scouts were driven out of their minds with panic.

"Run!"

"Wait for me!"

Wang Lao'er shouted as he pursued them relentlessly.

He didn't even forget to turn back and yell, "Remember to pick up the heads!"

He kept up the relentless pursuit the entire way.

Along the path, they kept running into Tang scouts who saw a squad of Liao scouts fleeing for their lives, initially thinking their own reinforcements had arrived. When they realized it was just a single lone horseman chasing them, they stood there completely stunned.

"Useless trash!"

A squad of enemy scouts, currently skirmishing with Tang scouts nearby, detached themselves to reinforce their fleeing comrades.

The result was exactly the same.

Wang Lao'er punched through their lines first, and by the time the old scout arrived with the rest of their men, the enemy scattered in utter terror.

Wang Lao'er still didn't forget to collect the heads. But since there were only a few of them, the heads were cumbersome to carry.

So Wang Lao'er found a thick rope and strung all the severed heads together, dragging them behind his horse in the dirt.

Thus, when Wang Lao'er spotted another group of enemy scouts and cheered as he charged toward them, a thick plume of dust rolled up behind him.

A trailing string of bloody heads bounced and skipped along behind his charging mount like grotesque trophies.

Everyone who witnessed the sight was left completely dumbfounded.

The string of heads grew longer and longer, and Wang Lao'er grew more and more excited.

"Where are the enemies?"

Unable to find any more enemy scouts nearby, he turned to ask his own side's scouts.

"Ahead!"

"Old scout, let's go!" Wang Lao'er yelled back over his shoulder.

The old scout called out weakly, "Lao'er, we can't go any further!"

They slaughtered their way all the way to the absolute furthest perimeter held by the Tang scouts.

"Charge!"

The old scout had no idea what had happened to Wang Lao'er; he only knew that this fellow was becoming terrifyingly proficient at killing.

More than a dozen new heads were added to the rope, and the Tang scouts looked at Wang Lao'er with entirely different eyes now.

This bastard had clearly gone completely bloodthirsty!

Wang Lao'er even trotted up to them and asked politely, "Excuse me, where are there more enemies?"

A scout pointed straight ahead.

A thick cloud of dust rolled across the horizon.

The thunderous sound of hooves rumbled like approaching storm clouds.

Wang Lao'er turned his horse around and shouted joyfully, "Old scout, more meat!"

He was about to whip his horse around to charge when he saw the old scout standing there with his mouth wide open, unable to close it.

Wang Lao'er slowly turned back around.

At the edge of the horizon, a solid black line had appeared.

Those black lines were leaping and bounding; as they crested the horizon, they undulated like a dark, churning ocean.

"The main enemy force has arrived! Fall back!"

The scouts whipped their horses and began to retreat in haste.

Among the enemy ranks, an officer pointed forward, and a massive wedge of cavalry surged out from their lines.

"Lao'er!"

Wang Lao'er stared blankly at the oncoming enemy horde. Fearing the simple-minded fellow would charge right into them, the old scout hastily spurred his horse forward to grab him, but Wang Lao'er had already spun his mount around.

"Run!"

At least he hadn't completely lost his mind.

When Wang Lao'er returned to camp, the entire Chenzhou army was in an uproar, rushing out in droves to catch a glimpse of the spectacle.

Liu Qing was no exception.

"What on earth is he dragging behind his horse?"

Wang Lao'er rode up, dismounted, and asked, "Military Commissioner, is it really ten copper coins per head?"

Liu Qing nodded numbly.

"Really?" Wang Lao'er asked earnestly.

"Really," Liu Qing answered with equal earnestness.

Wang Lao'er trotted around to the back of his horse, untied the rope, and hauled the heads over one by one, dragging them like a fisherman pulling in a heavy net.

"Fifty-three." Wang Lao'er had counted them long ago, but had forgotten the final tally. "Old scout, how much is fifty-three heads?"

"Five hundred and thirty copper coins."

That was not a difficult math problem.

Wang Lao'er held out his hand and said with sheer delight, "Hand over the money!"

Liu Qing stared blankly at the pile of heads.

The entire Chenzhou army stared in stunned silence.

The string of grotesquely battered and bloody heads grinned and grimaced hideously in the sunlight, as if silently recounting the sheer absurdity of being slaughtered by a single madman.

No one knew what had snapped inside Wang Lao'er at that moment.

When Yang Xuan asked him about it later, Wang Lao'er's reply was simple:

"I suddenly realized that killing people is actually much simpler than I thought."

Yang Xuan looked at the old scout, who only offered a helpless, bitter smile, indicating he understood nothing either.

"Well, you should practice more."

It was a good suggestion, so Yang Xuan added, "Old scout, spar with Lao'er a bit."

"Right, remember to keep it to light sparring—stop before you actually hurt each other."

The old scout's face drained of color, and just as he was about to refuse, Wang Lao'er flashed toward him like a phantom.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!"

The old scout was chased all over the camp like a hunted hare.

Yet Wang Lao'er was simply too fast.

Finally, both of them came to a sudden halt.

Wang Lao'er's fist stopped dead just an inch away from the old scout's chest.

Thud!

A gentle tap.

"Cough, cough, cough, cough!"

The old scout collapsed into a squat, coughing as if his lungs would tear apart.

"Light sparring!"

Wang Lao'er turned around, looking just as blankly innocent as he always had.

Yet Yang Xuan knew deep down that everything had changed.

Liu Qing clearly took a profound interest in this killing machine and sent someone to ask whether he wanted gold or silver as his reward instead.

Wang Lao'er demanded copper coins.

When Yang Xuan found out, he gave him a solid kick.

"How are you going to carry all that weight?"

"I'll carry it myself."

Wang Lao'er sat happily beside a massive mound of copper coins, beaming from ear to ear.

"Yiniang said she'd help me save my money. When we get back, I'll give it all to her, and whenever I want meat, I'll have meat."

"Don't you want to take a wife?" the old scout asked, clutching his aching chest.

"A wife... can you eat her?"

Thinking of a newlywed groom earnestly asking his bride on their wedding night, "Can you eat you?", even knowing it was a joke, everyone present felt dark lines cross their foreheads.

"That's a praying mantis," the Vermilion Bird muttered.

"The enemy is coming!" someone shouted from outside.

Battle horns began to blare in long, mournful notes.

The enemy lines responded in kind.

Huang Chunhui appeared.

It was already past midday.

He cast a glance at the enemy forces and gave his orders: "Maintain defensive readiness. Let the rest of the troops rest."

He turned back to enter his tent, muttering, "This weather is just right for taking a nap."

Lin Ya had arrived.

He gazed across at the Tang army's encampment and commanded, "The Tang forces are well-rested and waiting for us. Order the entire army to fall back and pitch camp."

That very day, Huang Chunhui issued orders to improve the soldiers' rations.

Steaming hot meat soup, flatbread without limit...

Everyone ate with ravenous determination.

Huang Chunhui was making the rounds to inspect the camps.

"Commissioner."

The soldiers stood up to salute.

"Keep eating, don't get up," Huang Chunhui said with a warm smile.

A civil official accompanying him remarked, "The Commissioner's cold has not yet cleared. Perhaps you should inspect the camp again tomorrow."

Huang Chunhui shook his head.

"Many of these men will not live to see tomorrow."

"Let me take one more look at them."

"And let them take one more look at me."