I asked curiously, "Why does Black Tiger take up so much space? Does he have body odor?"
Xiang Yu smiled faintly: "You'll find out in a moment."
We had dismounted by then. I circled around on the boulder. The vanguard of the Chu army was right beneath our feet, but looking back, stretching for miles, was a dense mass of men, horses, and chariots, seemingly endless on this flat grassland. I could feel the oxygen deprivation we felt up there with every breath they took! I chuckled, "All's fair in war, huh? You said you had 15,000 men, but you've probably laid bare your true strength, haven't you? What, are you going to gang up on Zhang Han?"
Xiang Yu exclaimed in astonishment, "This is 15,000 men?"
I was shocked and, wiping my sweat, said, "That can't be right! It looks like 200,000 to me!"
Xiang Yu smiled dismissively: "That's because you've watched too many blockbuster movies. Don't assume that a screen full of people means there are really that many. In my experience, even the grandest scenes don't have more than two thousand people. The real army of thousands looks like what's right in front of us. If there really were 200,000 troops fighting, the entire grassland would be barren by now."
I kept wiping my sweat. Oh, so that's how it is. I suddenly remembered an idiom, "seeing every bush and tree as an enemy soldier." To be honest, I can't blame Fu Jian at all. The fact that he could mistake bushes and trees for people only shows that he had actually seen thousands of troops.
As modern city dwellers, we may not even have the opportunity to witness a gathering of more than 10,000 people, so we may not be very sensitive to numbers. I have always been amazed by the scenes in those blockbuster movies, but now they seem like child's play. As Xiang Yu said, they probably didn't even use more than 5,000 extras.
If a camera were to capture this scene, there wouldn't be any plot; even if a ticket were sold for 80 yuan, the audience would wholeheartedly say that I didn't care about the cost.
I looked left and right and asked, "Where are the enemies?"
One of Xiang Yu's personal guards, who was lying on the ground, listened and said, "They're here..."
Then, on the edge of our vision, a dark line slowly moved toward us, like a shadow cast by rolling dark clouds in a clear sky. As it drew closer, we could vaguely see that the enemy's banners were also waving—the Qin army had arrived!
To be honest, I was initially quite confident in our strength, but the enemy's momentum was truly astonishing. At least their uniforms were all the same color, and they surged in from afar like a tidal wave. It was also boundless, like some god had urinated on us and was about to drown us... Uh, that's a bit disgusting, but it's quite apt. If I were in the Chu army, I would have run away long ago if no one was watching me.
As if infected by me, the more than 2,000 men at the front of the Chu army began to stir, but were quickly stopped by the iron cavalry behind them.
Xiang Yu sat cross-legged on the ground, picked up a small pebble, and tossed it onto the shoulder armor of the black tiger below. The black tiger looked up and said, "General..."
Xiang Yu said, "As soon as they stop, charge at them. You'd better perform well today; my brothers are watching you."
Black Tiger licked his lips excitedly and said, "Thank you, General."
I asked, "Aren't you going to deploy it?"
Xiang Yu traced lines on the ground with a straw stick and said, "The deployment is complete."
I:"……"
By this time, the enemy forces had gradually approached, slowing down as the two armies drew closer, seemingly adjusting their stance in preparation for a charge. When they were about 100 meters apart, the enemy messenger, standing on a small cart, frantically waved his flag to signal a halt. With a thunderous roar, the Qin army immediately took up their positions, their military discipline remarkably disciplined.
This seemed to issue an order to attack to the Chu army. Black Tiger roared, and the Chu cavalry around him raised their spears and shoved the 2,000 infantrymen in front of them into a charge. This puzzled me greatly; I had always wondered what these seemingly ineffective infantrymen were for. Now I realized they were a forced suicide squad, driven by the regular army's pressure to charge towards the Qin forces. The Chu army rearranged themselves before them, preparing for the next attack.
These 2,000 men, like cornered rabbits, could only advance relentlessly, even with a comrade supervising them from behind. In the blink of an eye, they were engaged in close combat with the Qin army. The Qin vanguard consisted of elite cavalry; their long spears were thrust forward, and the men screamed in agony. Moreover, the Qin army had the cover of archers. Although these 2,000 men looked like a large group, they disappeared into the enemy ranks in the blink of an eye. In less than five minutes, more than half of them had been killed or wounded.
The battle was moving too fast; it wasn't until now that I realized what was happening. I exclaimed in frustration, "This is what you call a new army?"
Xiang Yu nodded and said, "Yes. Most of them are prisoners. Letting them charge is to slow down the enemy's momentum. Also, let them sharpen the enemy's blades, so that we can suffer fewer casualties in a short time."
Seeing that less than 30% of the "new army" remained, and with the battle not even started, the battlefield was already a bloody mess, I felt a wave of weakness wash over me, and I collapsed to the ground, saying, "You...you're too cruel!"
Xiang Yu said calmly, "What war doesn't involve death?"
Yes, that's the tone. Even in my opinion, Xiang Yu never really cared about human life; he only focused on results. Like he told Ni Siyu, "If you lose the competition, don't come back to see me." He wouldn't even acknowledge someone jumping off a building in the street; he was willing to risk the lives of everyone in the car just to teach Cao Xiaoxiang to drive. You could only say he was fair to others and to himself.
Xiang Yu said, "Those who survive this battle will be incorporated into my elite troops. No matter who you were or who you fought for before, once you're in the force, no one will dare to underestimate you. In other words, your life and dignity will be guaranteed. If you want people to fight for you, you have to give them hope."
I watched as a soldier had a gun shoved into his mouth, the tip emerging from the back of his head. My face turned deathly pale, and my stomach churned. People always say war is cruel, but if you haven't seen it with your own eyes, you'll treat that as a eulogy. Once you experience it firsthand, it's a completely different story. This isn't special effects; this is a living, breathing human being.
But what could I say? Should I go and break up the fight? This was all part of history; I just happened to witness it. In other words, these people were destined for this fate. Without them acting as human shields for Xiang Yu, securing victory after victory, there would have been no Chu-Han Contention, and history would have been completely different.
Seeing that I didn't speak, Xiang Yu smiled and said, "Just treat this like a movie. You have to understand that you've come to more than two thousand years ago. You don't need to treat them as real people. Anyway, once you drive the car again, they will all cease to exist—" Xiang Yu suddenly pinched my shoulder and pointed to the battlefield, saying quietly, "Xiao Qiang, look at them. How painful their lives are. Even those who kill will inevitably be killed by others in a while. Even if they win this battle, there will be another one waiting for them. But when they die, they are completely free and are reborn into a peaceful era. Regardless of wealth, they can live a peaceful life, marry and have children, and experience joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness every day. Isn't that good?"
I said with a green face, "I feel much better now that you've said that, but won't this become your excuse for taking lives so lightly in the future?"
By this time, the 2,000 men had been almost entirely wiped out. Although they hadn't inflicted significant losses on the Qin army, their charge had disrupted their formation, depriving the cavalry and chariots of the momentum to mount a powerful charge. Seeing the opportunity, Black Tiger gave another long shout, and the Chu cavalry immediately leveled their long spears and spurred their horses into a charge. At this time, the horses lacked stirrups and were unsuitable for swords and spears; the cavalry's greatest advantage was the momentum of their charge, combined with their sheer numbers, to inflict heavy casualties on the enemy. The Qin army, halted by the 2,000 men, could only passively support the Chu charge. The thousands of horses trampled the ground, and upon engaging, they immediately suffered heavy losses; their once orderly formation was swept away like a rake.
I kept a close eye on Black Tiger. With everyone else charging, the original 200-meter distance had shortened somewhat, but there were still several dozen meters of open space. I saw Black Tiger take a large hammer from his back and throw it to the ground. I was puzzled, but then I saw him wave his hand in a circle above his head, and the hammer rose from the ground. It turned out the hammer had an iron chain cast into it, the other end of which was held by Black Tiger. He swung the hammer faster and faster, and the chain lengthened, the hammer making a whistling sound, slowly forming a circle with a diameter of 10 meters. Black Tiger roared and spurred his horse forward, the hammer swinging incessantly. When he charged into the Qin army, he was like a giant meat grinder, indiscriminately attacking men and horses. Nothing touched his hammer was of any kind; the hammer circle swept through the enemy ranks like air, leaving headless corpses and broken spears and swords in its wake.
I swallowed hard and said, "This man is probably no less strong than you—he's the Black Tiger who died in Pengcheng, isn't he?" Xiang Yu nodded.
Now I remember, Zhang Bing mentioned a lieutenant named Black Tiger who wielded a meteor hammer. Xiang Yu also told me that he sent Xiao Huan back around this time, so Zhang Bing only knew Black Tiger but didn't know he later died in the Battle of Pengcheng. Looking at his dashing appearance, I thought: Maybe I should get a meteor hammer too? Too bad I don't have the strength. If all else fails, I could replace the hammerhead with a load of manure; then I'd be invincible…
The battle had lasted only about half an hour, and the Chu army was already slowly expanding its advantage. In reality, the Qin army's loss of the initial offensive wasn't an irreversible disadvantage; their soldiers were undeniably skilled, but they simply refused to fight to the death. Driven by the relentless Chu army, they quickly scattered. The Chu army's subsequent actions consisted mainly of pursuing the fleeing soldiers. Of the 30,000 men on the battlefield, only about 5,000 or 6,000 perished by the end, unlike the utterly devastating battles depicted on television.
Xiang Yu glanced down one last time, then lazily rose and said, "Let's go back."
In the end, I still don't know how they won the battle. It seems quite simple: just take the people to the location and let them fight it out themselves. People say Xiang Yu was a genius of war, but that genius seems rather mediocre. I didn't see him staying up all night to devise strategies, nor did I see him leading the troops from the front. So how did he win?
It seems that war is neither as simple nor as complicated as we thought. Apart from the large number of deaths, it is just like doing ordinary things.
There was a minor mishap on the way back: we were traveling against the wind, and my hero's cloak almost pulled me to the ground. Also, I felt the armor was too heavy. But it had one advantage: when you're on horseback, as long as you find your balance, your body is like a moving castle, able to stay upright without falling off. If you're marching at night, you can curl up inside the armor and sleep.
When we returned to the camp, we were treated like heroes, especially me—the soldiers had never seen a general who carried nothing in his hands and had his cloak tied around his waist.
After the sun set, the soldiers who had been cleaning up the battlefield returned. Suddenly, someone reported that Zhang Han, the commander-in-chief of the Qin army, had led 100,000 troops to attack from Jiyuan and was currently stationed 20 li away.
Xiang Yu said, "Hey, he wants to fight me to the death."
Yu Ji took Xiang Yu's helmet and said, "He has sent small groups of troops to harass us time and time again, but he has never succeeded. How dare he come here by himself?"
Xiang Yu said, "That's why he desperately needs a victory. Hu Hai is already suspecting him of disloyalty, the Qin army's morale is low, and if Lao Zhang doesn't fight with all his might, he'll only face certain death. Heh heh, tomorrow's battle won't be easy." Xiang Yu called out loudly, "Guards, please invite all the generals to our main tent for a meeting."
I pulled Xiang Yu aside and whispered, "Brother Yu, are you confident?"
Xiang Yu laughed and said, "Others may not know, but don't you? Tomorrow Zhang Han will be utterly defeated. I'm just putting on a show now."
I said worriedly, "Be careful. The original course of history has been erased. Any unexpected event could change the course of the war. Don't be too careless."