Lone smoke in the desert

(I) This battle has been going on for five days, and our outlook is increasingly pessimistic. It seems the enemy isn't as panicked by our sudden appearance as they have been with previous enemies. We've been forced into positional warfare against an enemy force that outnumbers us by 20,000.

Fortunately, our archers are consistently inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy. Tonight, they'll camp right next to our Jackal Camp; everyone is exhausted.

I've been in the Western Regions for almost two years now, and like many other scions of noble families who have come here, I want to earn merit as soon as possible so I can return to Chang'an. Some say we're here to gain prestige; perhaps so. But I'm different from them. The Dugu family has fallen, and I don't know what I'll gain if I go back.

I'm even considering staying in the Western Regions. Finding a position in the Anxi Protectorate shouldn't be difficult for me. I've distinguished myself in the battles against bandits, and besides, I was originally a scholar. But what about my young wife, Yanran? Can she endure life in the Western Regions desert?

Before the campaign, my aunt arranged for us to marry to ensure the Dugu family line continued. I left seven days later, and later correspondence said Yanran wasn't pregnant. That's fine, after all, I hoped to be by her side when our child was born. Thinking of Yanran made me uneasy; I longed to hold her in my arms… Eight out of the ten people in the tent were snoring, except for me and Dazheng. Dazheng was an old soldier, already forty years old, who had participated in the war against Tibet and the campaign against Little Bolu. Although he was my subordinate, I learned much of my combat experience from him, and he trained my hundred-strong cavalry unit. Yet, he still obeyed me, perhaps from the first day I arrived, or perhaps after that time when, under my command, our hundred-strong cavalry unit annihilated three hundred bandits. In short, he was very obedient to me; few of the noble families who came to serve with me received such treatment. Thinking of all this, I finally fell asleep.

Shouts! They came from the archer unit. Dazheng and I sprang to our feet almost simultaneously, swords already in hand. Zhao Lie moved quickly, scrambling to his feet to lift the curtain, but Da Zheng grabbed him. I had already slashed open the leather behind the tent with my knife and rolled out.

Several figures were inside the camp, sentries, clearly panicked, rushing to ring the alarm bell. Thankfully, there were no enemies in our camp yet, but the archers' position was already ablaze… My brothers emerged one after another. Da Zheng tossed me my bow and arrows: “How did the enemy appear behind us?”

I didn't have time to think about that. I had to be responsible for the lives of my hundred cavalrymen—no! Ninety-four cavalrymen. Six brothers had already died. Tonight's situation clearly indicated we were under attack; one wrong move and we would be wiped out.

“Da Zheng, mount up and guard the camp!”

“Yes, sir!”

The entire camp, perhaps the entire army, and our unit were probably the fastest to react. By the time the sentries began ringing the alarm bell, all ninety-four cavalrymen were already mounted and lined up. I was just about to report to An Xin, the commander of the Jackal Battalion.

The enemy was upon us. There was no palisade between our archers' camp and ours, and five hundred enemy cavalrymen, torches in hand, were upon us in the blink of an eye.

"Fire!" I roared.

My right wing and some sentries unleashed the first volley of arrows at the enemy. My right wing was second in archery among all the soldiers in the Anxi Protectorate, so dozens of enemy soldiers fell from their horses in an instant.

At that moment, scout Song Mingchang shouted, "Sir, it's the Karluks!"

What? The Karluks, allies? But they attacked the archers, and now… I understand, they've betrayed the Tang Dynasty and joined the Abbasid Caliphate.

I realized what was happening. "Li Ziyi, go to the commander's tent and report the trespassing of the Karluks directly to General Gao."

"Understood!"

Reporting directly to the superior was pointless since the enemy was already very close, and there was no time to fire a second volley of arrows. "Draw your swords! Brothers, follow me and kill..."

This is truly my original work. The defeat of Gao Xianzhi, the Tang Dynasty's Anxi military governor, in his battle against the Arab Empire is the background for the beginning of this story, and I plan to continue writing about the An Lushan Rebellion.

Of course, eroticism is also indispensable, but I must first introduce the background characters of the story. What kind of experiences will Dugu Nan, as an officer of the Tang Dynasty's Anxi Protectorate, encounter?

(II) In the tenth year of Tianbao, Gao Xianzhi conquered the Kingdom of Tashkent and encountered the Arab army, fighting for five days. The Karluks mutinied, and Xianzhi was defeated.

Our Jackal Battalion almost held off the Karluk army. My sword was already red, and my once bright red battle robe had turned dark. The Karluks, after their successful attack on the archers, never expected the Tang army to react so quickly, with troops immediately responding.

If the other units had acted faster, if the Arab army had arrived later—I even thought later, if the Karluks had attacked our Jackal Battalion instead of the archers initially, we could have held them off, allowing the archers to hold off the Arab army.

However, none of these "ifs" came true. The enemy must have planned it all out, choosing the right time, the right place, and the right opponent… The Arab army attacked from behind, and our front line had clearly been breached. The fighting between the enemy and ourselves turned into chaos. Suddenly, the enemy disappeared, and our routed soldiers surged forward, scattering the troops into disarray.

We only knew to follow the flow of people. The right flank still followed me closely, but the men around me were no longer my brothers from the Jackal Battalion. Our close coordination was a good thing; even in that fierce battle, we only lost eight brothers. If we could escape, we might be the unit with the least losses today, but that would also be a bad thing, because we would still be relatively intact. Then someone called out to me.

"Dugu Nan!"

"Present!" I answered instinctively.

If I had time to think, I would have pretended not to hear and let my steed run faster to escape. But I'm a soldier, and obeying orders has become a habit.

The person who called me was General Duan Xiushi. He ordered me to hold off the enemy in front of a poplar forest. With tens of thousands of pursuers behind us, it was a joke to send me, a mere eighty-six cavalrymen, to hold off the enemy. But later I learned that of our fifty thousand troops, only three thousand escaped that night; Duan Xiushi had run out of troops to cover the rear.

I was surprised that we could hold out until dawn, and even more surprised that we hadn't seen the enemy by then. Dawn broke, and we could leave, but just then the enemy appeared—a troop of fierce cavalry, about three hundred men, dressed in black robes and black turbans, riding black warhorses.

In peacetime, I would have thought this was a ceremonial guard, especially their horses. The Arabs' fine steeds are far superior to ours. Fortunately, our Anxi army's horses are the best in the country, but after a night of fighting, we couldn't outrun them even now.

This cavalry unit, dressed in fine clothes, must be a reserve force, not yet involved in last night's battle. But judging from their horsemanship, they are undoubtedly elite among elites. The brothers are very tense; they can't win, and they can't outrun them—what can they do? I've been pondering this question all night.

"Dazheng, Li Ziyi, each take forty men and head east in two directions. Be quick. Asina, you and the others follow me."

Li Ziyi asked, "What about you, sir?"

I didn't allow him further questions: "Do as I say!"

Dazheng wanted to speak, but time was running out; the enemy was very close to the woods.

I drew my sword in a flash and pointed it at them: "Go!"... The Arabs tried to enter the woods to search, but suddenly a volley of arrows shot out, and several riders fell from their horses. Several cavalrymen emerged from the forest and galloped south in front of their column. With a few twangs of bowstrings, several more Arab riders fell from their horses.

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Lone smoke in the desert

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