Chapter 332. The Great Battle of Hubodagang 3 — Goryeo Enters the Battle
The battle was approaching its climax.
At the far end of the southern plain, a new cloud of dust began to rise.
At first, it looked as though the wind itself were lifting the earth.
Then banners appeared within the dust, and beneath them spearpoints and horses' heads flashed into view.
The Jin commanders all turned south at once.
Aguda raised his head from horseback.
His eyes fixed on the southern horizon.
"Who is it? Which army?"
The commanders around him looked in the same direction.
The battle had already driven deep toward the Liao central army.
A new force appearing from the south at such a moment could become either salvation or disaster.
If it was a Liao detachment, the Jin would be struck from behind.
If it was the Goryeo army, everything changed.
Fresh troops could be driven into the opening the Jin had fought so hard to tear through the Liao center.
A scout immediately galloped out, throwing up dust behind him.
A handful of riders raced madly toward the approaching host.
They were merely going to identify the force, yet it looked almost as though they were riding to their deaths.
Their horses flew across the winter field.
Then Aribo yanked his horse around and followed.
He took nearly a hundred tribal cavalrymen and rode south.
They needed to identify the newcomers, but if they proved to be enemies, Aribo's men would have to take the first impact.
His riders lowered themselves in the saddle and charged toward the dust with bows and short spears in hand.
Youngwoo, still advancing toward the Liao center, glanced in that direction.
Then he broke into a broad smile.
Amid the red earth, blood, and flashing silver armor of death, the sudden sight of his white teeth seemed almost unreal.
His smile was startlingly clear amid the dust and stench of blood.
Still swinging his weapon, he murmured,
"Reinforcements. The Goryeo army."
He recognized them before anyone else.
The words immediately spread backward.
The Goryeo and Balhae soldiers nearest Youngwoo heard first.
Then the cavalry in the next rank took up the cry.
So Cheolryong shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Reinforcements!"
The Balhae soldiers behind him shouted,
"Reinforcements!"
A louder cry erupted from the next line.
"The Goryeo army!"
The shout raced through the ranks of Balhae and Goryeo troops.
The eyes of men who had been fighting until their breath nearly failed suddenly changed.
Until now, they had been clawing forward, desperately trying to break through a wall that refused to give way.
Now there was strength pressing from behind them.
Twenty thousand Jin troops.
Twenty thousand Goryeo troops.
Forty thousand soldiers concentrated on one battlefield were no small army.
Twenty thousand Goryeo troops had now joined the twenty thousand Jin.
The Liao still possessed the greater numbers, but the force that could be concentrated against the central army had doubled.
If Youngwoo continued breaking through from the front while Park Geunsu and Kim Buui pressed the Liao left, Tianzuo's imperial guard would have to defend a far broader front.
Aribo, riding as though possessed, finally reached the army approaching from the south.
He slowed his horse and offered a military salute.
"Loyalty. Aribo of the Fifth Mouke of Jin."
The man before him had the bearing of a civil official despite wearing armor.
His speech was measured, and even in the urgency of the moment his eyes remained composed.
"I am Kim Busik of the Goryeo reinforcements. This is General Park Geunsu, and this is General Kim Buui. We have twenty thousand troops."
Joy spread across Aribo's face.
He bowed quickly.
"Thank you. I will report this to the Great Khan at once."
The moment the formalities ended, he turned his horse again.
The animal kicked against the dirt road and raced away.
A swelling sense of emotion seemed to push at his back.
Behind him, Goryeo banners snapped above the army advancing from the south.
Spearpoints and armor flashed beneath the sunlight.
Even after the long march, the ranks remained intact.
They had arrived in time.
At the very moment they were needed most.
Aribo returned to Aguda.
His horse almost slid to a stop.
"Great Khan!"
Aguda turned.
"Goryeo reinforcements. Lord Kim Busik has arrived with twenty thousand men. Generals Park Geunsu and Kim Buui are with him. Their combined left and right armies number twenty thousand."
Aguda's eyes flashed.
He looked from the dust rising in the south to the Liao central army.
The Liao center was already wavering under Youngwoo's assault.
Tianzuo's banner had been driven backward, and the imperial guards were constantly changing formation as they tried to shield the emperor.
And now the Goryeo army had arrived.
This was more than an increase in numbers.
It was a new blade that could split the space between the Liao left wing and center.
Aguda gave the order immediately.
"Aribo."
"Loyalty."
"Take this message to the Goryeo army."
Aribo leaned forward.
"The battle is urgent, so I ask this of them before anything else. General Park Geunsu will take ten thousand men into the gap between the Liao left wing and center.
"There."
Aguda pointed toward the left side of the Liao center.
Youngwoo's charge had forced the center inward and opened space there.
The left wing had tried to close in to support the center, but the two formations had not yet fully joined.
"General Kim Buui's ten thousand will strike below them. Press the lower portion of the Liao left wing. Park Geunsu strikes above, Kim Buui presses below, and together they prevent the left wing from supporting the center."
"Loyalty."
Aguda lowered his voice.
"The target is Yelü Yanxi. Break the center and shake the emperor's banner. The Goryeo army is not here to strike from the edge. Today they enter the very heart of the battlefield."
Aribo answered loudly.
"Loyalty!"
He raced south again.
He came like the wind, carrying Aguda's welcome and his command.
The Goryeo army had marched a great distance, but there was no time to rest.
As soon as Kim Busik heard Aguda's request, he summoned Park Geunsu and Kim Buui.
Park Geunsu spoke first.
"The ten thousand of the right army will enter between the Liao left wing and center."
Kim Buui bowed as well.
"The ten thousand of the left army will press from below."
Kim Busik looked toward the battlefield in the north.
Through the tangle of dust, banners, and pounding hooves, Youngwoo's long battle streamer could be seen flashing as it moved.
Kim Busik nodded.
"We are not too late. Now the Goryeo army enters the battle."
The drums of Goryeo sounded.
The banners that had come from the south tilted toward the battlefield.
Park Geunsu's right army galloped toward the gap between the Liao left wing and center.
Kim Buui's left army pressed into the lower side of the Liao left wing.
The Liao army could no longer concentrate solely on stopping the Jin attack against the center.
Now it had to face the newly arrived Goryeo army from the south as well.
Youngwoo heard the drums from the front.
He smiled amid the blood and dust.
He was no longer alone.
The army of Goryeo had reached the battlefield.
The Balhae soldiers saw it.
The Jin saw it.
The Liao saw it.
The momentum of the battlefield changed.
Another force joined the road being cut toward the emperor's banner.
For the first time on the fields of Hubodagang, the banners of Goryeo moved directly against the Liao central army.
Aribo rode again.
The three Goryeo commanders who had come from the south were already studying the battlefield.
Kim Busik held his horse still as he looked between the vast Liao formation and the direction of the Jin assault.
Park Geunsu and Kim Buui were already judging where best to commit their troops.
Aribo dismounted and offered a hurried military salute.
"An order from the Great Khan. General Park Geunsu's ten thousand are to strike between the Liao left wing and center. General Kim Buui's ten thousand are to press the sector below."
Park Geunsu immediately asked,
"Where are the Jin left and right wings?"
Aribo pointed toward the battlefield.
"They are already attacking the center. The Liao army had been retreating, then turned back to fight. Their lines are still uneven. A gap is opening between the left wing and the center."
Park Geunsu's eyes lit up.
"Oh."
Aribo pointed toward a great banner visible through the dust.
"That is the objective. Yelü Yanxi, emperor of Liao.
"And the man breaking the road open ahead of us is Commander Yi Youngwoo of Goryeo's Divine Tiger Guard."
Aribo explained it with the warmth of one welcoming allies.
Park Geunsu laughed loudly when he heard the name.
"Oh, Yi Youngwoo. He is my friend."
He used the word friend without hesitation.
How many men could call someone who had once served under them a friend?
In a world where once rank had separated two men, the lower man was often regarded as lesser in person as well.
Park Geunsu was unusual in that respect.
At the word friend, Aribo also smiled brightly.
He had wanted to call Youngwoo his friend as well.
"We all respect him."
"Ahahaha! Ahahaha!"
Park Geunsu immediately reported to Kim Busik.
"The battle is urgent. Allow the right and left armies to divide and strike the Liao left wing. We must prevent it from supporting the center."
Kim Busik's eyes sharpened.
He studied the battlefield once more, then gave the order at once.
"Do it. Break the enemy's left wing. The target is the Liao emperor."
Park Geunsu and Kim Buui saluted together.
"Loyalty."
"Loyalty."
When the two commanders returned to their formations, the Goryeo banners split.
Park Geunsu's right army advanced toward the gap between the Liao left and center.
Kim Buui's left army moved farther down, pressing into the flank of the Liao left wing.
They had only just arrived after a long march, yet the ranks formed quickly.
Drums sounded.
Officers rode along the lines, placing spearmen, archers, and cavalry into position.
The Liao left wing grew tense.
Those troops had originally been preparing to move in support of the center.
But because they had turned back after retreating, their line was stretched long.
The gaps between front and rear had widened.
Wagons and horses were caught among the formations.
When the Goryeo army entered that space, the Liao left wing began to lose the road by which it could join the center.
Aribo approached Kim Busik again.
"Lord Kim, the Great Khan is curious."
Kim Busik kept his eyes on the battlefield, then turned toward the distant place where Aguda's great banner stood.
The banners of Jin snapped amid the winter dust.
Aguda was beneath them.
Kim Busik thought of the name.
Wanyan Aguda.
And of the ancestor Aguda had spoken of.
Kim Hambo.