From the deck of the five-toothed warship, Mitarai no Tsuchi stood high above the water. With the advantage of his position, everything along the shore lay clearly within his sight.
The Tang army numbered just over a thousand men. Of those, no more than four hundred were cavalry.
Yet when this mere thousand-odd soldiers began to surge forward, the momentum they unleashed felt as though it could shatter Mount Fuji itself.
Mitarai no Tsuchi had spent long days lingering in the splendor of Tang Chang'an. He had grown intoxicated by its prosperity, enamored of the sight of Tang soldiers parading captured chieftains and bound prisoners. He had even taken a perverse pride in watching foreign peoples reduced to slaves, silent and seething yet daring not to rebel.
But now, as he watched these thousand crimson-clad Tang troops advance like the karmic flames described in Buddhist sutras, sweeping toward Asuka in an all-consuming blaze, Mitarai no Tsuchi began to tremble. That overwhelming, prairie-fire momentum struck him to the core, and in that instant he finally understood why he had longed so desperately to enter the Tang household registry and claim Chang'an as his true homeland.
The last traces of unease in his heart seemed to be severed in a single stroke, vanishing without a trace.
So overcome was he that he did not even think to ask permission to disembark. Trusting in his ability to swim, he flipped over the side and leapt straight into the water. On the shore, Liu Rengui, who had been watching Li Shiji depart, was left utterly stunned.
Men were hurriedly sent to haul the Wa envoy back out. Even from a distance, his frantic shouts could be heard echoing across the shore.
"General Liu! Though I presented the Asuka map to the Duke, maps are never fully accurate!"
"I beg to lead the way for the Duke! I know the nobles of the Soga clan! I am willing to earn merit!"
Mitarai no Tsuchi had no horse, and so these heartfelt pleas naturally never reached Li Shiji.
While still aboard the ship, Li Shiji had already studied Asuka with his personal guards, using the map offered by the Wa envoy.
Perhaps because this land lay deep within the Wa islands, protected by layers of favorable terrain, and because flat land was especially precious here, the region had never bothered with city walls or fortified strongholds.
The King of Wa and the various noble houses lived according to the lands they controlled. Drifters and slaves clustered around these nobles, and over time, these settlements, each centered on a noble house and bearing its name, collectively formed the whole of Asuka.
The broad stretches of connected farmland also gave Tang scouts unparalleled freedom to ride.
Without any need for orders, the squad leaders among the scouts had already led their light cavalry off in prearranged directions, fanning out to search the area.
Li Shiji, meanwhile, guided his horse forward at a steady pace with the main formation, advancing unhurriedly toward the southern part of Asuka.
According to the Wa envoy's intelligence, the Soga clan currently enjoyed the highest prestige here. The lands south of Asuka were the flattest and most fertile, nourished by two rivers and exceptionally rich. All of it was private land belonging to the Soga clan.
Along the way, Li Shiji saw living things that would scarcely be considered human in Great Tang. They wore scraps that might have been leaves or bundles of dried grass tied together, seemingly to fend off the cold.
Filthy and disheveled, small of stature, they clawed at the frozen earth with crude wooden tools or their bare hands, even in the depths of the twelfth month, as though hoping to dig up something edible.
When the Tang army rolled toward them, they merely stopped what they were doing and stared blankly, wordless, locking eyes with the advancing troops.
From time to time, Wa men who were clearly different from these slaves appeared. Upon seeing the Tang army, some babbled incoherently and tried to block the road, while others turned and fled without a word.
Those who blocked the way were shot on the spot. Li Shiji paid no attention to those who fled, issuing only a brief order.
"Slow the pace."
Mounted on his tall warhorse, Li Shiji drew a thousand-li telescope from his chest and gazed ahead, the scene becoming even clearer.
He saw those Wa men who looked like overseers or household retainers flee back toward a distant, lavish estate. Soon after, the entire compound erupted into activity. People rushed in and out, pointing and gesturing in his direction.
As the army continued forward, the scouts who had earlier scattered like fledgling swallows now returned one by one, like tired birds returning to their nests. With each report, the crude map in Li Shiji's hands grew more complete.
By the time the last scout rejoined the ranks, the private troops gathered by the Soga clan were already close at hand.
At this point, Li Shiji felt that the Wa envoy's earlier words had not been exaggerated. Even here, more than ten thousand men had already assembled. According to the scouts, at least three more such great estates lay farther behind.
Though these men were shorter than Tang soldiers, poorly armed, and effectively unarmored, ten thousand gathered together still formed a boundless sea of bodies. It gave the Wa forces unprecedented confidence.
A man who seemed to be their leader rode out on a small horse. Both man and mount were short, yet the stream of gibberish he shouted somehow carried an air of arrogant bravado.
Li Shiji could not understand a word, but he could clearly see the men behind that Wa commander begin to cheer one after another. The sound swelled like raging waves, carrying a faint but unsettling menace.
The Tang army, however, had no intention of playing along.
These were veterans who had lived through the chaos at the end of the Sui dynasty. Many had fought the Turks at Dingxiang in night raids and life-or-death clashes. Instead of fear, undisguised contempt flickered across their faces.
At last, they received their commander's order.
"So noisy," Li Shiji said coldly.
The language barrier and the enemy's reckless arrogance had erased any remaining interest he had in exchanging words. Only a nameless anger burned in his chest.
His warhorse halted. Li Shiji raised the long lance in his hand, pointed it forward, then pressed it down.
The signal to attack.
With barely over a thousand men, there was no need for elaborate commands. The Tang soldiers moved as they always had, announcing the start of battle with crossbow bolts.
More than six hundred infantrymen formed three ranks and raised their crossbows, angling them slightly upward toward the vast mass ahead. Fingers squeezed triggers.
No one on the battlefield cared to see whether his bolt struck true. After firing, the first rank crouched and reloaded at once, allowing the men behind them to loose their bolts in turn. Then they crouched again, making room for the third rank. The cycle repeated without pause.
The storm of bolts cut down a small patch of Wa soldiers, but against an army of over ten thousand, it was barely noticeable. Sensing danger, the Wa commander at the front had already retreated into the formation, shouting orders from within.
Only after the first rank of Tang crossbowmen had reloaded for the fourth time did the Wa forces finally begin to surge forward, shoved from behind, still screaming themselves hoarse in an unintelligible tongue.
None of it mattered to the Tang troops.
Even when the enemy closed to just over a hundred paces, the Tang soldiers continued calmly. They cocked their crossbows, took aim, rose, and fired.
Only when the Wa reached within forty paces did the officer who had been watching coldly from the first rank finally bellow a short command.
"Drop the crossbows!"
"Drop the crossbows!"
The order was shouted from mouth to mouth, and for a moment it tore apart the resolve of the Wa soldiers at the front, causing their steps to falter.
From the rear, the mounted Wa commander saw it clearly. Those precious weapons that had been mercilessly harvesting his private slaves were now being tossed aside without a second thought. The sight made his heart ache, and without regard for the battlefield, he shouted in Wa.
"Pick up those sacred tools! Do not let them be trampled!"
The people who lived here had no true understanding of war. The overseers immediately cursed and passed the order forward, creating even greater chaos at the front.
The Tang army paid it no mind.
Dropping the crossbows was only half the command. Almost the instant the weapons hit the ground, every Tang soldier reached for the saber already planted before him.
Only then did the second half of the order spread through the ranks.
"Horizontal sabers!"
"Horizontal sabers!"
Blades slid free of their scabbards. Six hundred gleaming arcs burst into bloom across the fields of Asuka, like white birds taking flight, like snow erupting from the flat earth in dazzling brilliance.
The cold sheen of steel flared within the crimson ranks of the Tang army, carrying a deadly, almost seductive beauty.
From afar, the Wa commander stood stunned. He had never imagined that flesh and bone could be cut through so smoothly. Almost by instinct, he shouted again in Wa.
"Bring me a sword!"
What he failed to notice was that the Wa soldiers at the very front, those facing the horizontal sabers, had already lost all will to fight.
The disparity in weapons, the lack of armor, the difference in height, and the farcical nature of their own commands left them with nothing but their bodies to meet the blades of this unknown enemy.
Those with better luck staggered forward a few steps before falling, managing in their final moments to thrust sharpened wooden sticks at the Tang soldiers, only to watch the crude points shatter against armor.
The front ranks tried to retreat. The rear ranks shoved forward.
Those whose courage had collapsed turned and fled. Those driven by greed forced their way ahead.
The human tide churned and crashed back upon itself, but none of it could stop the Tang army advancing like a solid wall, horizontal sabers moving in a forest of steel.
The sound of iron-shod hooves striking the ground was heavy and dull, occasionally ringing out clearly when a stone was struck.
There was no need for complex tactics. Seeing the infantry locked together, Li Shiji followed his instincts and urged the cavalry forward.
Compared to other battles, he had to lower his long lance a little more than usual, an awkward adjustment. The speed of the galloping horse left him no time to correct it.
To Li Shiji's eyes, the enemy's collapsing front exposed a rear riddled with holes. There was no need to pick a target. The cavalry slammed straight into one of the weakest points.
With a single charge, the Wa rear ranks began to crumble.
For them, even the concept of cavalry was unfamiliar, let alone warhorses.
The land of Wa had no horses of its own. Baekje had supplied them.
Only after the Soga clan established ties with Baekje decades earlier had they managed, at great cost, to import several dozen small horses. These rare mounts quickly became symbols of noble status for the Soga clan.
Now, the towering warhorses ridden by this unfamiliar enemy shattered everything the Wa had believed.
If those who rode horses were noble, then were these divine beings beyond compare?
When they saw, with their own eyes, those massive horses rear up and crush Soga nobles beneath their hooves, the Wa army's morale plunged straight into the abyss.
Once their spirit fully collapsed, they did not flee.
Instead, they dropped to their knees where they stood, bared their necks, and waited silently for death.
This posture spread rapidly across the battlefield, leaving both cavalry and infantry, who had just begun to feel the thrill of combat, staring at one another in confusion.
The nameless anger in Li Shiji's chest flared even hotter. He spat hard and turned his head.
"Send out a squad. Go fetch that Mitarai fellow, or that Wa monk, whoever it was."
His guards acknowledged the order, wheeled their horses around, and galloped back toward the shore.
Li Shiji, meanwhile, pressed the advance even harder.
"This is only the first. There are still three groups of bandits farther south. Clean up the weapons and continue forward."
Discarded crossbows were recovered. Scabbards left planted in the ground were reclaimed, sabers sheathed once more. The Tang soldiers spared not a glance for the enemies kneeling with exposed necks. Laughing and chatting among themselves, they set off southward again.
The cavalry squad racing back toward the shore soon spotted two massive ships that had already pulled away, now anchored in the inner sea as a show of intimidation.
Fortunately, the Wa envoy the general wanted was still on the shore, sparing them much trouble.
When summoned by the Tang army, Mitarai no Tsuchi showed not the slightest reluctance. He climbed onto a horse with something close to delight.
Li Shiji's guards wasted no words and retraced their path at speed.
At Mitarai no Tsuchi's deliberate prompting, the riders casually recounted the results of the earlier battle.
There were no surprises, and Mitarai even felt it was only natural.
"The mighty armies of the Celestial Empire," he said reverently, "are all champions among men."
The words pleased the riders greatly.
One younger cavalryman then voiced a concern.
"Squad leader, if we go back and forth like this, will the general really wait for us?"
The squad leader snapped at him.
"Victory and defeat on the battlefield are decided in moments. How can you speak like that?"
Another laughed.
"Squad leader, do not joke. On this battlefield, victory is something you can pick up just by bending down."
The others chimed in loudly.
"Exactly. I have never fought such an easy campaign."
"I would be embarrassed to boast of merit when we get back."
In the end, the squad leader waved it off.
"The Wa envoy is here. Do not say such things in front of others."
Unexpectedly, Mitarai no Tsuchi disagreed.
"General, if kneeling and awaiting death can win the favor of the Celestial Empire, then those Wa men are all men of merit."
The squad leader raised an eyebrow, finding no reply, and only urged his horse onward.
Heading south, they passed one grand estate after another already breached, and group after group of private troops and retainers kneeling in dense clusters.
They finally caught up at the third site, where Li Shiji was overseeing the cleanup.
Mitarai no Tsuchi had been jolted the entire way and was just gathering his breath, preparing a few sincere and flattering words for the Duke of Lai, when Li Shiji assigned him a task without ceremony.
"The scenery here is decent. The bandit suppression has been tiring, and I have no desire to move elsewhere."
"Go yourself, or send someone from your delegation, and inform the King of Wa. This duke is suppressing bandits here and will wait for him to come and offer his thanks."
Li Shiji spoke of summoning a king as casually as one might call for a servant. Mitarai no Tsuchi found it entirely appropriate.
"The Duke's body is worth a fortune. This is a fine place to rest and recover."
"The King of Wa understands propriety. Once he learns that the Soga clan's private troops have been removed, he will surely be overjoyed."
After giving his orders, Li Shiji clasped his hands behind his back and surveyed the unfamiliar landscape with interest.
This sweep had cleared the southern part of Asuka. The Soga clan was far from eradicated, but Li Shiji did not much care.
As Liu Rengui had made clear, the true goal of this expedition was to sever Wa's influence on the Korean Peninsula and lock it firmly within its own islands, allowing the court to focus on Liaodong.
Helping the King of Wa eliminate internal obstacles had never been part of their plan.
"Oh, one more thing," Li Shiji added. "Be sure to tell the King of Wa that the men who suppressed the bandits fought fiercely and suffered many injuries."
The meaning was perfectly clear.
Mitarai no Tsuchi ignored the Tang soldiers nearby, who were laughing loudly and boasting of being completely unscathed. He bowed deeply.
"As it should be."