Chapter 55: Rout

"Immediately report to the Marshal that the rebel troops are preparing to flee from the East and South Gates!" Having received reports from several directions and roughly piecing together the situation inside Shan Commandery, Pang Zhong deduced that the enemy forces, after collapsing rapidly upon our army's breach into the city, were swarming toward the East and South Gates in an attempt to escape. He immediately ordered his personal guards to relay this news to Yang Xi, who was commanding from outside the city.

This battle had gone exceptionally smoothly. It could be said to be the most exhilarating and triumphant campaign of Pang Zhong's entire military career. The city of Shan Commandery, defended by an overwhelming force of one hundred thousand troops, had in an instant transformed into an undefended town. Such a battle situation was beyond anything he had ever dared to dream of.

The might of the gunpowder was so immense, and the rebel forces had scattered in panic after being attacked—this felt somewhat unbelievable. One had to know that the one hundred thousand troops defending Shan Commandery were originally elite border forces of the Great Tang; under no circumstances should they have collapsed at the very first contact.

Yet, this exact reality had unfolded before him. When Pang Zhong led his soldiers charging into Shan Commandery, they encountered virtually no resistance. As his men tossed the portable simple grenades they carried, even rebel groups numbering in the hundreds or thousands would immediately scatter in disorder, trampling over one another in their desperate scramble for escape routes. After charging and fighting for a while without meeting any resistance, Pang Zhong accepted this reality.

He was a fierce and seasoned general well-versed in warfare, capable of rapidly adapting to shifting battlefield dynamics. Since the situation was as such, his next objective was to maximize the fruits of victory. There were one hundred thousand rebel troops inside Shan Commandery; if all of them could be annihilated or captured, the blow dealt to the rebel forces would be immeasurable. Upon receiving reports that massive numbers of rebel troops were preparing to flee through the East and South Gates, Pang Zhong immediately dispatched messengers to Yang Xi, hoping he would send forces to intercept them. If Yang Xi deployed tens of thousands of troops to pursue the routed enemy, there was a high likelihood of completely annihilating this entire hundred-thousand-strong force. Even if total annihilation was out of reach, a devastating blow could still be dealt.

However, what Pang Zhong did not anticipate was that Yang Xi had already taken these possibilities into consideration beforehand.

Liu Guangting, acting on his orders, had already led a force of over ten thousand men rapidly toward the East Gate. Close behind him, unwilling to miss out on military honors, Wang Sili—upon receiving Yang Xi's command—personally led ten thousand men, shedding their heavy baggage, and fast-tracked toward the East and South Gates as well.

Unlike Liu Guangting, who was filled with passion, heroism, and an eager desire to reap military merits, Wang Sili deeply regretted accepting the assignment to lead the rear guard, which had caused him to miss today's astonishing, overwhelmingly lopsided battle.

Such a battle might only be encountered once in a lifetime, yet now that it had happened, he had practically missed his chance to participate.

If a rift had not developed between him and Yang Xi, and Yang Xi had not relegated him to the rear guard, he could have harvested deeply admired military achievements in this campaign. He should never have alienated Yang Xi, the actual commanding Marshal, merely to court the favor of Crown Prince Li Heng.

Regret was regret, but Wang Sili still hoped to remedy this missing piece. Taking advantage of the rebel rout, he aimed to annihilate a substantial number of enemy troops and crown himself with the glory of military achievement. He issued strict orders commanding all his soldiers to rush toward the East and South Gates of Shan Commandery at top speed, striving to slay more enemies and grab a share of the spoils from Liu Guangting.

Before leaving Luoyang, Cui Qianyou had devised extremely meticulous deployment plans and left behind several trusted senior generals to garrison Shan Commandery. Yet, faced with the fierce "artillery" bombardment of the Tang army—having never witnessed the terrifying power of gunpowder—they lost their composure in an instant. The immense shockwave and lethal force panicked every single soldier. As explosive charges rained down continuously upon the ramparts, their sole thought was to find a place to hide, to avoid being blown to pieces, or to turn and run, dropping even the weapons in their hands.

When the Tang army began the siege, Li Ling personally went up to the ramparts to command. Yet, he too had never witnessed such a siege tactic. When the explosive charges landed, he was stunned by the immense detonation force, and was ultimately knocked unconscious by the shockwave produced by a nearly thirty-jin explosive charge detonating right beside him. Many nearby soldiers mistakenly thought Li Ling had been killed, plunging them into even greater panic. Terrified generals proved entirely incapable of organizing any resistance.

Li Ling was subsequently carried away from the ramparts on the back of a loyal personal guard. Regaining consciousness after fleeing a distance, and seeing the city in complete chaos with countless soldiers caring for nothing but self-preservation while the rebel forces had already breached the West Gate, he knew the grand势 (overall situation) was lost. Unable to organize any resistance, he could only issue the helpless order to abandon the city and flee toward Xiashi City, located east of Shan Commandery.

However, once the city fell into chaos, escaping proved exceedingly difficult.

Over thirty thousand soldiers fled blindly back from the direction of the West Gate. Their flight panicked the garrison forces at the other gates. As rumors ran wild that the city of Shan Commandery had fallen, the soldiers stationed at the remaining gates lost all will to resist. After wavering between holding their ground and fleeing, the defenders at the East and South Gates watched the massive tide of routed soldiers from the West Gate surge toward them in total disorder. This directly shattered the morale of the defenders at these two gates; the generals could no longer hold their ground or control their men, and they threw open the city gates to escape.

With the gates finally opened, desperate deserters rushed out even before the drawbridge could be lowered. Terrified that the devastating explosives would strike them again, many leaped directly into the moat. It was already early winter, and the night water was bitterly cold; soldiers who could not swim sank into the freezing moat and never resurfaced. Countless people were trampled to death, some lost their lives tumbling straight down from the city walls, but the vast majority surged out through the gateway where the drawbridge had been lowered.

Once outside the walls, many fled frantically as if granted a grand amnesty.

Yet, misfortune did not end there. Just as massive waves of deserters poured out of the city, earth-shaking battle cries echoed from the west.

Horrified, the routed soldiers saw countless torches scattered like a field of stars west of Shan Commandery, moving rapidly in their direction. The battle cries were emanating precisely from that quarter. "The Tang army is pursuing us!" someone shouted. This cry acted like a fatal death curse, striking a further blow to the already fragile hearts of the rebel soldiers. Whether mounted on horses or fleeing on foot, they exerted every ounce of physical strength to escape. Riders whipped their horses relentlessly amid a cacophony of frantic shouts and desperate neighing. Those soldiers who failed to secure a horse had to rely solely on their legs, fleeing in the exact opposite direction of the oncoming Tang army.

Yet, how could a chaotic mob of deserters possibly outrun the pursuing Tang troops, who had pushed their speed to the absolute limit? Within moments, the rapidly advancing Tang soldiers charged fiercely into the ranks of the fleeing rebels.