Chapter 308: Training, and More Training — Part 2
Next came the training.
While the equipment was being prepared, Youngwoo drove the soldiers hard every day.
He tried to transfer everything he had learned from military texts and from his master directly onto the bodies of men and horses.
In the end, every line in the military classics taught the same thing: how men were to fight together.
Where they should stand. How they should move. Where they should strike. At what moment they should break the enemy.
First, the officers learned it on a tactical map. Then they learned it again with their own bodies in the saddle.
The map exercises began early in the morning.
Youngwoo spread sand across a broad wooden board and shaped mountains, rivers, and low hills with pieces of wood. Black stones represented the Liao army, while red stones represented his own forces.
Small flags bore the names of each unit. One flag, marked with a strip of yellow silk, represented the imperial standard of the Liao emperor.
The officers sat around the board and looked down at the field of sand.
Youngwoo drew a route with a long rod.
"If we meet them head-on, we take the full weight of their strength. That is why we go around them. A flanking maneuver.
"We must reach the enemy with our formation intact. Match the pace of your horses. Do not waste arrows. Keep the proper distance from the man beside you.
"Once we complete the turn, we strike the flank and drive toward the center.
"The frontal force will attack only to cloud the enemy's judgment. The real blow will come from the side. We break through the flank, push into the center, and reach the emperor in a single stroke. In the end, his standard must stand alone."
He moved one large red stone in a wide arc and pressed it against the side of the black formation.
Then he spread the red stones behind it across a broad front facing the enemy center.
One of the officers asked,
"What if the enemy reinforces the flank first?"
Youngwoo immediately shifted several black stones to the side.
Then he drew one red stone farther back.
"If they move troops to defend the flank, the center grows weak. If they hold the center, the flank opens.
"That is how a battlefield works. Whenever one side is strengthened, another becomes thin.
"We find that moment and strike."
The battle on the sand table was repeated again and again.
They considered what would happen if the Liao cavalry charged first, if the infantry raised shields and held its ground, if the imperial guard withdrew, or if muddy earth slowed the horses.
Each time, Youngwoo rearranged the stones and changed the route.
At first, the officers saw only a board covered in sand.
As the exercises continued, they began to imagine the breathing of real soldiers and the speed of real horses moving across it.
Once the map exercises ended, they went directly to the open field.
The flags moved first.
The red Zhaoyao banner rose high, and the smaller unit standards found their places beneath it.
The drums sounded.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
At three beats, the cavalry mounted.
A long horn call sent the front line forward at a slow pace. Two short blasts opened the left wing.
When a flag tilted downward, the riders slowed. When its tip turned to the right, the flanking maneuver began.
The force at the front advanced to deceive the enemy.
They rode within a hundred paces, then eighty, then fifty, and loosed volleys of arrows without charging.
Youngwoo watched every signal from horseback.
The flags had to move before spoken commands reached the troops. Drums and horns had to guide the army before men began shouting.
The field was soon covered in dust.
When dozens of horses galloped together, dry earth burst upward beneath their hooves.
Dust rose to the riders' waists, mingling with the breath of men and the steam from the horses' nostrils.
The cavalrymen in silver armor rode low in their saddles.
Iron plates brushed together with a rippling sound. The armored horses stretched their necks and surged forward.
Shields hung from left arms, and spearheads extended at an angle beyond the horses' ears.
Youngwoo gave the order.
"Left wing, spread out!"
The horn sounded three short blasts.
The cavalry of the left wing opened like a fan through the dust.
A small banner behind them swept through a broad circle.
Rather than charging straight toward the mock Liao formation, they rode far to the outside and curved around it.
Their speed remained steady.
Any rider who exhausted his horse at the beginning was punished immediately.
The first lesson was to preserve enough strength to finish the charge.
"Center, hold them!"
The drumbeats slowed.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
The center reduced its pace and kept pressure on the enemy front.
Imagining the Liao army before them, the men raised their shields, lowered their spears, and adjusted the distance between one another.
Not a single line could lose its shape before contact.
If the horses rode too close together, the riders could not use their spears. If the gaps grew too wide, arrows and lances would enter between them.
Youngwoo judged the spacing with his own eyes.
"Archers, ready!"
Bows rose behind the main force.
The strings were drawn together, sending a low creak across the field.
When the signal flag dipped forward, a volley climbed into the sky.
The arrows rose like a black swarm through the dusty sunlight, then fell before the mock enemy formation.
The archers were not training only to hit men.
They learned how to clear a path for the cavalry, force the enemy to lower their heads, and blind them at the moment of the charge.
At that instant, the left wing completed its turn.
Silver armor flashed behind the curtain of dust.
The flanking cavalry cut inward at an angle toward the enemy's side.
The thunder of hooves rose all at once.
The drumbeats quickened.
Boom-boom-boom-boom. Boom-boom-boom-boom.
"Strike!"
The riders lowered their bodies.
Shields covered the front. Spearheads dropped into a single line.
The first rank tore open the flank. The second widened the breach. The third drove into the center of the wavering mock formation.
Faces were difficult to see through the dust, but the spearheads, banners, and horses' necks remained clear.
The riders did not simply follow the man ahead.
They followed the flags, the drums, and the horns.
Youngwoo watched from the top of a low hill.
The Zhaoyao banner swept broadly once.
At the signal, the reserve advanced.
They moved last, but they aimed for the deepest point in the formation.
That was where the mock standard of the Liao emperor stood.
The yellow banner rose in the middle of the field.
To Youngwoo, it was the heart of the Liao Empire.
"Bring down the imperial standard!"
The final horn call sounded long and clear.
Three cavalrymen surged ahead.
One opened the way with his shield. Another hooked the shaft of the standard with his spear. The last leaned from his saddle and cut through the supporting rope.
The yellow flag swayed heavily, then collapsed into the dust.
At that moment, the drums stopped.
Only the harsh breathing of the horses and the gasping of the soldiers remained across the field.
The cavalry turned and reassembled.
Sweat ran beneath their armor, and white foam clung to the horses' necks.
One man had raised his shield too late. Another had lost speed during the flanking maneuver. Another had opened too great a gap from the rider beside him at the moment of impact.
Youngwoo remembered every mistake.
Inspection followed as soon as the exercise ended.
He called forward those who had performed well, then summoned those whose formation had wavered.
He did not raise his voice.
Instead, he made them repeat the movement on the spot.
The angle of the shield. The direction of the horse's head. The moment to loose an arrow. The habit of watching the flags.
He corrected each fault one by one.
"A battle may begin with courage, but victory comes through repetition. What your body remembers today will keep you alive tomorrow."
The soldiers mounted again.
Before the dust had fully settled, the second exercise began.
The drums sounded. The horns split the air. The flags drew their routes once more across the field.
The cavalry in silver armor drove through the dust.
Their spearheads gathered toward a single point, and the horses struck the earth in the same rhythm.
The training continued without end until they could bring down the Liao emperor's standard exactly as commanded.