Chapter 40: The Sword Shatters the Ghostly Oracle

The dozen or so Tibetan warriors surrounding Mangbuzhi felt as though they too had been run through with a sword.

In past campaigns, Mangbuzhi’s might had been branded deep into their souls like the incantations of their ancestors; even if the legendary demons of old were to resurrect, they would firmly believe that Mangbuzhi could fight them for hundreds of rounds.

They simply could not accept this reality. Yet, when they looked toward the alley where the enemy had retreated, they could not even muster the slightest thought of pursuit.

Amid the smoke, two bare-handed figures flickered and vanished.

Green eyes, two bare-handed Chang'an officials... These fragments gradually converged into a massive shadow, pressing down upon them like a mountain.

Li Xizhi was drenched in cold sweat.

He was far more nervous than Pei Yunqu, who had placed herself in direct peril.

Presenting captives before the battle lines and using Pei Yunqu as bait—such a maneuver was beyond anything he would ever dare to imagine.

Yet Pei Yunqu, having run back, showed not a shred of fear.

What was there to fear? According to the calculations of that scoundrel Gu Shishi, there was still a whole herd of warhorses waiting for these Tibetans.

Should those Tibetans come surging after them in a disorderly mob, the group of warhorses previously blocked in the alley would soon obstruct their path.

"Li Xizhi, did you see that? The Tibetan dog-general we killed seems to have been a commander of high rank."

Looking at the excited Pei Yunqu, Li Xizhi swallowed hard with great difficulty. "That man might well have been Mangbuzhi, the commander of the Tibetan vanguard force."

Mangbuzhi?

Another thunderous roar echoed in Pei Yunqu’s mind.

She had no time to ponder and blurted out instinctively, "How did you recognize him?"

Li Xizhi gave a bitter smile. "Blue plumes and silver stars. The feathers on his cap are of that exact color. Tibetan legend says they were dyed with the blue blood of a demon after he slaughtered the beast in their ancestral sacred mountains."

"Really?" Pei Yunqu turned her head to look at Gu Liubai in disbelief.

"That is pure nonsense," Gu Liubai said.

Pei Yunqu let out a sigh of relief, thinking that indeed this scoundrel Li Xizhi had seen wrongly. Mangbuzhi was the mastermind behind several defeats suffered by the Tang army and one of the supreme titans of Tibet. A man like that...

Before she could finish her thought, she heard Gu Liubai continue, "The plumes on Mangbuzhi's head were simply dyed with ground powdered dark-blue stone. These Tibetans are always fond of using ghost-and-god hocus-pocus to frighten people."

"Wait," Pei Yunqu stared blankly at the disdainful Gu Liubai. "When you said it was nonsense, you didn't mean Li Xizhi was talking nonsense—you meant the hat-plumes were nonsense? The one we killed really was Mangbuzhi?"

Gu Liubai nodded.

In truth, he had not expected his luck to be this good.

He knew a smattering of the Tibetan language, and such underhanded tactics as presenting captives right before the battle lines could only be tested in such chaotic circumstances. As for whom they might manage to kill, it purely depended on who happened to stumble into their path at that moment.

Who could have anticipated that at this very juncture, they would bump directly into Mangbuzhi, the vanguard commander who had come to oversee the battle in person?

Such luck was genuinely extraordinary.

The situation had turned for the better.

***

Rukun, Chisan, and several other renowned Tibetan generals had by now also arrived outside the East Gate of Peshawar.

Whether it was them or Zanzhu—the supreme commander of this vast Tibetan army who had reined in his horse on the wilderness outside the city—they were no longer dull-witted enough to miss the glaring signs that the situation had gone terribly wrong.

At least five or six thousand Tibetan warriors had swarmed into the tiny city of Peshawar, but now, this forward momentum seemed completely stalled.

That crazed, death-seeking fat man on the western side had not been eliminated.

Even Qiubu, a warrior who had always been invincible on the battlefield, had perished beneath that fat man's blade.

An incomprehensible vortex of storm seemed to have formed within the city, as if something amiss was dragging Mangbuzhi's vanguard force down into a quagmire, rendering them completely immobile.

Just as Rukun and Chizan were about to dispatch a few cultivators into the city to ask Mangbuzhi what on earth was happening, they felt a sudden, surging tide erupt from ahead.

Countless voices rolled toward them like waves of the sea.

"General Mangbuzhi is dead!"

"Mangbuzhi has been assassinated!"

Mangbuzhi was dead?

Rukun and Chizan could not believe their ears.

If anyone dared to joke about such a thing at a time like this, they would undoubtedly be hacked into seventeen or eighteen pieces.

Yet this was no joke. The surging aura of terror, shock, and utter incomprehension had already slapped them across the face.

With wide eyes, they stared at the roiling smoke billowing from the city ahead, within which a colossal demon beast seemed to have suddenly manifested, its jaws agape, waiting to swallow them as well.

***

Those Tibetan chickens!

Pei Yunqu spat toward the spot where Mangbuzhi's corpse lay.

Some blood had splashed into her mouth.

Following Gu Liubai, she had felt relaxed the entire time.

It did not feel like being trapped in a city controlled by enemy forces; rather, it felt like playing hide-and-seek with a group of people.

However, upon reaching a spot not far outside the granary, she realized this was an entirely different world.

Corpses littered the main avenue outside the granary.

Blood and crisscrossing bodies stretched all the way into the depths of the granary.

The stench of blood completely overwhelmed the pungent smell of smoke, and every few steps, the soles of their feet stuck to shattered viscera.

Chen Tu, still dressed as a scholar, appeared like a ghost.

At a glance, Gu Liubai saw that Chen Tu had sustained injuries.

His left arm and abdomen were bandaged, with blood faintly seeping through the cloth.

"You killed a major general?" Before Gu Liubai could speak, Chen Tu asked directly.

"We happened to kill Mangbuzhi, the commander of the Tibetan vanguard. These vanguard forces will be thrown into disarray for a while. How are your injuries?" Gu Liubai asked swiftly.

"Hit by an arrow, and carved with a slash, but it won't hinder me."

With a solemn expression, Chen Tu gestured toward a spot to the south. "We must immediately fall back to that location. If you hadn't happened to kill that commander, this place could no longer be held."

"What kind of place is that?" Gu Liubai asked.

According to his plan, the Yinshan outlaws were supposed to pull back toward the west. He would rather surrender half the city to these Tibetans than fail to secure the upper hand and initiative on the western side.

"There are warehouses even larger than this one over there, and many of them have already been cleared out, leaving plenty of space. I can figure out a way to slaughter another batch of these Tibetans," Chen Tu replied briskly.

Gu Liubai nodded. "Very well. We must retreat to the west as quickly as possible. Earlier, these Tibetans underestimated us and relied solely on head-on, charging tactics, which is why they attacked this granary from the front. But next time, they will certainly change tactics. The moment the first batch of Tibetans dies at your hands, they will definitely surround you."

Chen Tu nodded as well. "Understood."

Gu Liubai asked, "Who is handling those warhorses?"

"Xu Qi."

"Do not slaughter the warhorses casually. These Tibetans seem to have misgivings; if a large number of warhorses die, they will lose those reservations, and we won't last long. What are the casualty figures?"

"On my side, only three of Xu Tuibei's old comrades remain, along with eight or nine border soldiers. Just over thirty have died in total," Chen Tu said. "Aside from myself and Du Haha, everyone else in our group is uninjured. Du Haha's injuries aren't severe; he's just somewhat exhausted and needs a brief rest."

Li Xizhi was once again gripped by a freezing numbness throughout his entire body.

He had swiftly surveyed the condition of the area surrounding the granary.

Within a radius of several li, there were no fewer than seven hundred Tibetan corpses.

Yet the entire contingent of Tang soldiers around the granary, excluding the Yinshan outlaws, totaled fewer than fifty men.

The Tibetans had lost over seven hundred men, while their own side had lost only thirty-something.

If such a battle record were ever written into a military report, he would flatly refuse to believe it.

The remaining survivors in the granary were already following Chen Tu's arrangements and moving toward the southern warehouses.

Amidst the dense sea of corpses, Pei Yunqu bowed with utmost solemnity to an elderly soldier who walked past, then asked in a soft voice, "How did you pull this off?"

"That scholar first had us rig up some caltrops and dig tripping pits, and then we hauled out all the beans from the granary and scattered them. When their cavalry charged in, they slipped and fell, and we used long bamboo poles tipped with spearheads to skewer them from behind the carts." The veteran was somewhat exhausted, his legs trembling as he walked, but his tone carried an indescribable pride. "They couldn't even get close to us, and every thrust hit home. If there weren't so many of these Tibetan dogs, and if they hadn't been blindly shooting arrows whether they could see a target or not, not many of our brothers would have died."

"Where did you get such long bamboo poles?"

"They were used in the granary to chase away sparrows. There were plenty more, and we tied spearheads to them. That scholar is formidable, and ferocious with a blade. And that swordsman surnamed Du—most of those who managed to charge in without falling were killed by him. Many of these Tibetan dogs were wearing inner armor underneath." The veteran, who still did not know Chen Tu's name, looked at Chen Tu's retreating figure with profound reverence. Even though his limbs felt weak, he believed that following this man meant he could kill a few more Tibetan dogs.

The excitement on Pei Yunqu's face had completely dissipated.

She had read military treatises extensively since childhood, but the idea of making do with local materials and holding a granary with merely this handful of people was something she could never have imagined.

Gu Liubai was frowning, deep in thought about how to make those Tibetans even more paranoid and suspicious. But as Chen Tu turned to leave, a thought struck him, and he instinctively called out, "Those warehouse grounds even larger than this one—they were cleared out beforehand. What were they meant for?"

A surviving veteran immediately answered, "Word was that a large quantity of medicinal ingredients was to be transported here, though for some reason they never arrived."

"Such a massive quantity of medicinal ingredients?" Gu Liubai paused, startled.

Pei Yunqu hurried over. "Earlier, Xie Wan prepared a large quantity of medicines to prevent and treat the black-eye plague in advance. They were supposed to be delivered to Peshawar. At first, I thought he was trying to prevent the spread of the epidemic, and that anyone leaving the city would be given medicinal broth to drink."

Gu Liubai frowned and remained silent for a moment.

Pei Yunqu said in a chilling voice, "Is it possible that the transportation of medicine was just a cover to confuse the enemy?"

"Even if these warhorses are a hindrance, the Tibetans don't want to harm them. However, they cannot take these horses with them, because in this freezing weather, the Tibetans lack the capability to supply provisions along the road. If they forced these horses on a long trek, they would all collapse and die within a few days," Gu Liubai said, narrowing his eyes as he strode away from the granary toward Pei Yunqu. "So, assuming these warhorses were left behind as Xie Wan's military merit, Xie Wan would have to provide an equivalent of sufficient value. The Tibetans would undoubtedly seize the opportunity to demand what they need most. Therefore, if it's merely medicine, those supplies might not be remedies for the black-eye plague at all. And if it's not just medicine, then whatever is smuggled inside must be something the Tibetans find extremely difficult to acquire."

Pei Yunqu gritted her teeth. "What do the Tibetans lack the most?"

"The Tibetans lack many things. Trying to guess what it is right now is meaningless," Gu Liubai said. "The only useful thing to do is to determine where this batch of goods has been sent. Finding out where they are right now is the most critical task."

"No matter what method you use, after sunrise tomorrow, you must let the people at Yangguan know that Peshawar is still in our hands, and that Pei Yunqu is still alive." He then turned around, looked at Li Xizhi behind him, and said earnestly, "As long as you can accomplish that, I feel we will have a few more chances at survival."