Ch.63Plains Battle (4)

“Be careful, brother.”

“Thanks, Belgutei.”

After expressing his gratitude to his younger brother, Bekhter looked at the lieutenant.

Though his head was so crushed that he was barely recognizable as human, he still wore Western Xia attire, so there wasn’t any particular problem.

“Surrender! Your commander is dead!”

Bekhter shouted loudly while holding the lieutenant’s sword high.

This caused the iron soldiers to begin panicking.

“Surrender! If you don’t surrender, I’ll kill you all!”

Though the language didn’t match, there was no difficulty understanding what Bekhter meant.

Since it was clearly a call for surrender, the iron soldiers were confused and didn’t know what to do.

With their commander gone, this confusion could only intensify.

On one side, the battle continued, while on the other, soldiers stopped fighting and watched cautiously.

Thus, the enemy cavalry force of 20,000 had become a disorganized rabble.

Of course, Bekhter knew this was only temporary and that problems would arise if the enemy regained their composure.

So he continued his attack, swinging his iron mace.

“Drop your weapons! Those who don’t will be considered our enemies!”

As Bekhter moved through enemy lines continuing the battle, the enemy’s morale weakened further.

With their morale broken, some enemies began dropping their weapons and giving up the fight.

The Mongol soldiers didn’t attack those who had dropped their weapons,

and seeing this, other iron soldiers quickly realized they wouldn’t be attacked if they dropped their weapons.

“I… I should drop my weapon and surrender.”

“Are you out of your mind, surrendering to the Mongols?”

“I don’t want to die like this!”

“Everyone, take up your weapons! We still outnumber the enemy!”

“No! Let’s pretend to surrender and wait for another chance.”

Those who wanted to surrender and those who didn’t.

With various commanders trying to lead them, giving mixed orders, the Western Xia iron cavalry couldn’t figure out what to do.

Observing this, Bekhter deliberately targeted those who appeared to be commanders and swung his iron mace.

“Cha-ap!”

“Urgh!”

“Kuk!”

Bekhter, resembling Yesugei, possessed an enormous build and strength.

The enemy commanders began to fall under his iron mace attacks.

Normally, other soldiers would surround an enemy leader and block attacks through coordinated defense.

But Bekhter was lightly armored and one of the best riders in Mongolia, allowing him to quickly evade whenever enemies tried to surround him.

Of course, Bekhter couldn’t always avoid attacks.

However, behind him was Belgutei, safely supporting him.

Swoooosh

“Kuk… th-this… kuk…”

An arrow that cut through the air lodged precisely in the gap of a helmet.

Again, the iron soldiers wore chain mail, making them difficult to defeat with arrow attacks.

But Belgutei’s archery skills were among the best in the Khamag Mongol.

He could shoot arrows into the gaps in enemy helmets without the slightest error.

“I really have a boar of a brother, what a hassle. Haah…”

Though he complained verbally, Belgutei’s hand was already reaching for his quiver.

This was because three large iron soldiers stood before Bekhter.

“Left? Right? Ah, whatever. If I take out just one, my brother will handle the rest.”

Saying this, Belgutei concentrated all his focus on his bow.

After a short deep breath, he released the bowstring.

The arrow left Belgutei’s bow and passed through the crowded enemy space with perfect precision.

It hit exactly in the armpit of an enemy cavalryman who had raised his arm high to bring down his sword on Bekhter’s shoulder.

“Aaaaargh!”

The soldier aiming for Bekhter’s shoulder couldn’t help but drop his sword due to the pain.

“Ha! You dare aim for my shoulder!”

Bekhter didn’t miss the opportunity his brother created.

With bear-like strength, he swung his iron mace and completely shattered the skull of the soldier who had tried to harm him.

The enemy soldier collapsed without even being able to scream.

Covered in the soldier’s blood, Bekhter revealed his white teeth and laughed ferociously.

“The wolf of the steppe howls! Who dares stand against me!”

“H-hieek!”

“R-run away!”

The soldiers who had been about to attack Bekhter took steps back, frightened by his grotesque appearance.

But Bekhter wasn’t generous enough to spare those who had pointed swords at him.

“Where do you think you’re going!”

His iron mace crushed the leg of a fleeing soldier.

“You’re running away!”

Then he turned and struck the soldier’s upper body with his mace.

With a chilling sound of breaking bones, intestines spilled out through the chain mail.

“Haa… haa…”

“P-please spare me. I-I’ll drop my weapon. P-please spare me.”

Faced with Bekhter’s incredible prowess, the enemy soldiers had no choice but to drop their weapons.

Seeing this, Bekhter smiled and raised his iron mace high.

“Victory is ours!”

His roar was so loud it resembled the cry of a Hangarad.

At Bekhter’s shout, the steppe warriors all responded by raising their weapons.

* * *

“A great victory!”

“Bekhter has accomplished something remarkable.”

“The entire enemy cavalry has collapsed!”

The khans were genuinely delighted by Bekhter’s great victory.

This was because iron cavalry was a troublesome opponent for a tribe whose entire force consisted of cavalry.

Due to their chain mail, it was difficult to inflict significant damage even with concentrated arrow fire.

Additionally, being cavalry, they could quickly catch up even if our forces attempted a false retreat.

So dealing with this cavalry unit was essentially our greatest challenge.

But my son Bekhter led the light cavalry and defeated the iron cavalry.

Moreover, Bekhter achieved the remarkable feat of moving through enemy lines alone and killing enemy commanders.

Of course, our casualties weren’t insignificant.

But having won against iron cavalry, Bekhter’s achievement deserved praise.

“You’ve done well, Bekhter.”

I praised Bekhter, who was cleaning up, in a whisper.

Then I turned my head to look at the khans.

“We will ride this momentum to annihilate the enemy. All troops, prepare for battle!”

The khans bowed and immediately left the ger.

I also got up, quickly armed myself, and mounted my horse.

“As expected of your son, brother. Seeing Bekhter’s achievements reminds me of you when you conquered the Tatars.”

“A-ahem. My son has indeed done well… ahem…”

I blushed at Munglig’s praise.

Being a father, I couldn’t help but be weak to praise for my son.

“By the way, it seems you’ll have quite a challenge, brother.”

“What do you mean?”

“With Bekhter achieving such great feats, you as his father must set an example.”

“…”

Hearing Munglig’s words, I realized he was right.

I cleared my throat, composed myself, and looked at Munglig.

“Munglig.”

“I await your command, my lord.”

“You and the Kheshig will take the left wing.”

Munglig smiled, bowed, and then mounted his horse.

He made a circle with his hand.

Wheeeeeet!

At that sound, the Kheshig appeared.

“Take up your swords and behead the enemy.

The Hangarad flies from east to west.

The strong stone of Daichi Tengri will rise from the hill and crush the enemy.”

As Munglig sang, the Kheshig immediately joined in the chorus.

“Do not catch those who flee to the spring. They are already wolf food.”

Munglig used the song to remind the Kheshig of their duties.

Then he grabbed his horse’s reins and began to gallop.

A little while after Munglig disappeared with the Kheshig, Chalukhab approached my side.

“Wouldn’t it be better to attack together, my lord?”

“If Bekhter had failed to break the enemy iron cavalry, that was my plan.”

I didn’t mean I didn’t trust Bekhter.

It’s just that as a commander, I always had to assume the worst scenario.

In our tribe’s current situation, there was only one worst-case scenario.

That was the enemy attacking our forces together with their iron cavalry.

In such a case, our forces would have to organize separately to tie down the enemy iron cavalry.

This would mean our available forces would be fewer than the enemy’s, so naturally the entire army would have to participate in battle.

But Bekhter’s defeat of the iron cavalry changed the situation.

There might still be enemy cavalry remaining, but with the iron cavalry broken, there was no enemy mobile unit to block our attack.

This meant that even if we attacked the enemy’s rear, they couldn’t respond properly.

“But with the enemy iron soldiers defeated, we can freely strike the enemy’s rear.”

“That means…”

“It means we can deploy the crane wing formation.”

I planned to deploy the hammer and anvil tactic, used throughout history, using only cavalry.

This tactic was so famous that it was well-known even in our tribe.

Usually, infantry played the anvil role and cavalry the hammer role.

But since our tribe had no infantry, we had to assign the anvil role to cavalry.

Since they had to withstand all enemy attacks, we had to deploy elite troops.

The only ones who could play this elite role were the Kheshig and Tamma.

However, since the Tamma’s main mission was rear disruption and information gathering rather than combat, the Kheshig was more suitable for the anvil role.

“Your insight is like seeing Daichi Tengri himself, my lord. I will follow your orders.”

After hearing my explanation, Chalukhab bowed with an impressed expression.

I looked at him and responded with a hand gesture instead of words.

In truth, the hammer and anvil tactic wasn’t invincible.

It’s just that against an enemy with only infantry remaining, it was hard to find a more effective tactic.