The sky was unsettled tonight, the moon appearing and disappearing amidst scattered clouds. In the distance across the wilderness, a faint gray-white line first appeared, then rapidly expanded into a mass.
"Light the torches!" Li Yuangui stood up and commanded, "Light more torches!"
"Ah?" Yang Xinzhi asked in surprise, "Why light torches? Aren't we supposed to be lying in ambush?"
"Ambush my foot!" Li Yuangui cursed, despairing at his guard's pig-headedness.
If they could simply ambush and slaughter all the approaching enemies, that would be much simpler. Though the fleeing group outnumbered their own forces by four or five times, more than half were women, children, and the infirm. Moreover, having stolen horses to flee at night, they likely lacked proper weapons and might not even have complete saddles. Twenty-some strong men occupying advantageous terrain with ample weapons could easily slaughter this group of weaklings like cutting melons and chopping vegetables.
The trouble was, they didn't want to kill—they wanted to capture. Alive.
Over a dozen torches were lit before and behind them, their bright flames waving small circles in the night sky, blocking the mountain pass from Chengji territory to the nomadic highlands. The rapidly approaching horse group showed obvious signs of panic and disturbance. The lead horses pulling ahead suddenly reined in, their whinnies piercing the night wilderness.
Li Yuangui quietly taught Yang Xinzhi a few phrases and told him to take deep breaths. When most of the fleeing horses had approached the pass, the tall, sturdy guard stood up and shouted with booming authority:
"Bold thieves, dismount and surrender at once! The Great Tang Army has already laid an inescapable net—you cannot escape! Dismount! Sit down! Hold your—"
Before he could finish the word "heads," whistling sounds came from the air as several arrows flew toward them. Fortunately, Li Yuangui had prepared for this. The young servant A-Chen and others, holding infantry long shields, rushed forward to block the arrows in front of Yang Xinzhi and Li Yuangui. Thud, thud—two or three arrows embedded themselves in the wooden shields.
"Return fire!" Li Yuangui also shouted. The archers behind him didn't hesitate, drawing their bows and shooting back. Their elevated position gave them the advantage, and having rested awhile, their range and accuracy were far superior to the fleeing enemies below. A volley of arrows caused immediate chaos—shouts, horse neighs, and cries rose from the slope.
Li Yuangui nudged Yang Xinzhi, signaling him to continue. The tall guard reluctantly stood up from behind the shield, took a deep breath, and resumed shouting: "Bold thieves—"
After three or five repetitions, there was little reaction from below. Some Tuyuhun people shot arrows in retaliation, while more reined their horses around, seemingly intending to retreat and find another way.
Kang Su-mi, crouching behind the two youths, finally couldn't hold back any longer. He tugged at Li Yuangui's armor:
"Fourteenth Young Master, save your breath—those Tuyuhun people don't understand Han speech, they can't comprehend it..."
"Why didn't you say so earlier?!" Li Yuangui nearly choked on his own frustration. "Teach him! Teach him to shout in their foreign language!"
Kang Su-mi shifted closer and began instructing Yang Xinzhi phrase by phrase in the Tuyuhun tongue. But the moment had passed. The pass was now a boiling cauldron of chaos, and no matter how loudly Yang Xinzhi shouted, no one was listening anymore.Among the Tuyuhun captives, about a dozen or so men were fully equipped with saddles and bridles, carrying bows and blades. Li Yuangui guessed these might be the reinforcements Sang Sai had brought. After the initial chaos, they quickly formed a battle line, firing arrows while seeking cover to resist the Tang troops ambushed at the mountain pass. Under the pale moonlight, the rest of the men and women on horseback scattered in all directions, the situation collapsing beyond control.
This was not good.
Li Yuangui tapped his helmet, deep in thought. His primary targets were the Tuyuhun queen, her children, and her brother, King Sky Pillar. If these key figures could be captured and sent to Chang'an, the escape of other captives wouldn’t be a major issue. But how was he to identify and apprehend these nobles?
He didn’t even recognize them, and with only about twenty riders under his command, charging into a group of over a hundred to search and interrogate was risky.
Earlier, Li Yuangui hadn’t been overly concerned about the numerical disadvantage. He knew the darkness could conceal his true strength, and the Tuyuhun captives, already terrified, would assume more Tang troops were lying in ambush in the valley, deterring them from engaging head-on. The battlefield situation unfolded as he had anticipated—except that he still couldn’t accomplish his self-assigned mission.
As he hesitated, the fleeing riders outside the pass grew increasingly scattered. Any further delay would make finding them even harder. Gritting his teeth, Li Yuangui stood up and shouted, "Mount up! Charge down! Eliminate those archers first! Everyone, search for the Tuyuhun queen and King Sky Pillar! Heavy rewards for their capture!"
A loud scoff came from behind—Kang Su-mi’s voice, though Li Yuangui had no time to ponder the old Hu merchant’s meaning. He, Yang Xinzhi, A-Chen, and the others mounted their horses and charged into the battlefield outside the pass, systematically hunting down and eliminating the enemy archers.
About a dozen of them wore armor, making them less vulnerable to stray arrows, and they led the charge. By the time they had nearly wiped out the resisting Tuyuhun fighters and turned to pursue the fleeing captives, Li Yuangui held little hope. The vast terrain was crisscrossed with ravines and countless hiding spots, and under the cover of night, who knew where the Tuyuhun queen and her children had fled...
Just as Li Yuangui was growing frustrated, a long, resonant horn blast echoed through the valley.
The sound seemed to come from the east. The Tang cavalrymen turned their heads eastward and noticed the faint glow of dawn on the jagged horizon. Beneath the brightening sky, scattered torches surged across the mountains and plains like a tide.
The horn call was familiar—a signal commonly used by Tang commanders. Li Yuangui had heard it often during military reviews, drills, and grand hunts with his father and brothers. Overjoyed, he initially intended to lead his men to meet the reinforcements but reconsidered and instead sent A-Chen with a light rider to deliver a report while he continued hunting down captives in the field.
Dawn soon dispelled the night, and the approaching cavalry extinguished their torches, their forms becoming clear in the morning light. Li Yuangui rode up a small ridge and surveyed the scene. The relief force numbered around five to six hundred, now divided into four or five units, systematically encircling and searching the plains with impeccable coordination.
"Who’s leading them?" he asked A-Chen, who had just galloped back to his side. The young servant panted, "Zhang... Zhang Shigui... mobilized local troops... from nearby garrisons..."This response was hardly surprising. With the Tuyuhun prisoners escaping the camp, the most anxious and desperate person would naturally be Zhang Shigui, who was responsible for escorting them back to the capital. However, Li Yuangui couldn't help but elevate his evaluation of General Zhang's military leadership skills by eighteen levels in one go—being able to mobilize so many troops in such a short time and command the local garrison soldiers, who usually defended their respective areas and likely had no prior joint training, with such smooth coordination truly befitted a seasoned general who had followed the current Son of Heaven through the chaos of the late Sui Dynasty.
Compared to his own amateurish "interception" attempt, which was merely copying the motions without understanding, the difference was immense.
"Kang—" A thought suddenly struck him, and he turned to ask Kang Su-mi, only to find the old Hu merchant no longer behind him. A quick glance around revealed that the seven or eight Hu merchants were also missing.
"Fourteenth Young Master, are you looking for Kang Sabao?" Yang Xinzhi sidled up, his large mouth twisting into something between a grin and a grimace. "They left us long ago... Look, they're over there!"
Following his thick finger, Li Yuangui spotted Kang Su-mi and his group of Hu merchants gathering riderless horses on the battlefield, already leading a string of them tied with coarse ropes—easily twenty or more. A-Chen chimed in beside him, "Everyone else is chasing after the prisoners, asking about the queen and such, but they're only going after the loose horses..."
Li Yuangui glared at the Hu merchants for a moment, too exasperated to deal with them, and led his men down the slope to continue the search for the escapees. But if he thought Kang Su-mi and his clan had joined the operation merely to snatch some horses for free, he was giving the old fox far too much credit.
The manhunt lasted two days. They successfully found the Tuyuhun queen and others, but her six-year-old son had fallen from his horse during the escape and been trampled to death, while her elder brother, King Sky Pillar, had died from an arrow wound. Of the original hundred or so prisoners, only forty or fifty remained after this incident—"At least we won't have to worry about them escaping again on the road," Zhang Shigui muttered bitterly, trying to lighten the mood.
As for the tribute horses, after much persuasion, Kang Su-mi handed over ten that were injured or lame, insisting his caravan had only found that many on the battlefield... Li Yuangui later learned that the government's horse administration had previously struck a deal with Hu merchants to trade weak horses for better ones. Kang Su-mi had wanted the contract but was outmaneuvered by a more influential local Hu merchant surnamed An. The two sides had clashed, and Kang Su-mi's opportunistic looting this time was also meant to sow discord between the authorities and An Sa-bao.
Li Yuangui couldn't be bothered to dig into further details. The horses weren't even Kang Su-mi's biggest gain this time. Not long after returning to the Qinzhou post station, the old Hu merchant quietly took Li Yuangui to a camp outside the city, saying, "This is something I really couldn't hide from you, Fourteenth Young Master." He lifted the flap of a small tent and gestured for Li Yuangui to enter.
Inside, seated on the rug was a slender young boy. When he looked up at the newcomers, his eyes met Li Yuangui's, and both froze in shock.
Sang Sai, the son of Tuyuhun's King Sky Pillar, was indeed in Qinzhou.
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