# **Chapter 23: Baptism by Fire**

  The attack came five days later.

  Dawn. Low fog rolling across the valley. Visibility maybe two hundred yards.

  Wei was on the north wall when the first scout came sprinting back.

  "Cavalry! Three hundred plus! Maybe four hundred! Two *li* out and closing fast!"

  Zhang was beside him in seconds. "That's not a probe. That's an assault."

  "They're testing the integration. Saw us improve, want to see if it's real." Wei turned to the watch officer. "Sound general alarm. All sections to defensive positions. Commanders to the north wall."

  The drums thundered.

  Across the garrison, soldiers moved. Fast, professional, no panic.

  The five days of intensive training showed.

  Commander Liu arrived first. Deputy Commander Zhao thirty seconds behind.

  Both immediately moved to their positions without prompting.

  Liu: "Main defensive line?"

  Wei: "North wall. Standard formation. They're coming straight at us—no subtlety."

  Zhao: "Reserves?"

  "Position for counter-maneuver. They'll probe for weaknesses. Be ready to plug gaps."

  Both officers moved.

  Captain Hu: "First and Second Companies! North wall defensive positions!"

  Lieutenant Feng: "Third and Fourth Companies! Reserve staging! Standby for deployment!"

  The garrison flowed into formation.

  Wei watched through his telescope as the Oirat force emerged from the fog.

  Four hundred riders. Maybe more.

  Heavy cavalry in the center. Horse archers on the wings. Professional formation.

  This wasn't a raiding party. This was a military assault.

  Zhang checked weapon distribution. "Crossbows ready. Hand cannons positioned. Ammunition distributed. We're as ready as we're going to be."

  "How's morale?"

  "Steady. They're nervous but holding. The training's carrying them."

  Wei nodded. "First real test of the integration. Let's see if it holds."

  ---

  The Oirat cavalry advanced to six hundred yards and stopped.

  Professional distance. Out of effective crossbow range but close enough to assess defenses.

  Their commander—visible by the elaborate helmet and banner—was studying the walls.

  Wei studied him back.

  "He's good. He's not rushing. He's mapping our response pattern."

  Liu joined him at the observation point. "What's he looking for?"

  "Gaps in coverage. Weak sections. Fire control discipline. Whether we panic or hold steady."

  "What does he see?"

  "Unified defense. Coordinated sections. Disciplined troops. Nothing like the divided garrison that existed two weeks ago."

  The Oirat commander signaled. His force split into three elements.

  Center mass: two hundred heavy cavalry.

  Left wing: hundred horse archers.

  Right wing: hundred horse archers.

  Classic envelopment approach.

  Zhao called it from the reserve position. "They're going to pin us with the center and hit the flanks with archers!"

  "Let them," Wei said. "That's predictable. We planned for this."

  Liu: "Fire control?"

  "Hold until they commit. Don't waste ammunition on positioning maneuvers."

  The order went down the line.

  "Hold fire! Hold fire! Wait for the mark!"

  The Oirat force advanced.

  Four hundred yards.

  Three hundred yards.

  The horse archers on the wings started circling, looking for angles.

  Two hundred fifty yards.

  Wei waited.

  Two hundred yards.

  "Crossbows!" Liu's voice cut across the wall. "Volley on mark!"

  The center formation braced.

  The Oirat heavy cavalry charged.

  "MARK!"

  Eighty crossbows released simultaneously.

  The bolts arced across the gap. At two hundred yards, maybe a quarter hit.

  Enough.

  Five riders dropped. Three horses went down.

  The charge faltered slightly.

  But they reformed and kept coming.

  "Reload!" Liu commanded. "Second rank, prepare volley!"

  The first rank dropped back. Second rank stepped forward.

  Rotating volleys. Sustained fire.

  The Oirat cavalry hit one hundred fifty yards.

  "MARK!"

  Second volley. More hits at closer range.

  The charge was taking casualties but not breaking.

  Professional soldiers. Disciplined.

  Wei watched the wings.

  The horse archers were circling, trying to find weak points in the flank coverage.

  "Zhao," Wei called. "East flank archer concentration. They're looking to exploit that corner."

  Zhao responded immediately. "Section Two! East wall reinforcement! Crossbows focus on archers!"

  Twenty soldiers moved. Fast, coordinated.

  The section reached the east wall and immediately engaged.

  Crossbow bolts against horse archers at extended range.

  The Oirat archers scattered, denying easy targets.

  But the flank probe was disrupted.

  Center formation hit one hundred yards.

  Liu: "Hand cannons! Fire by section!"

  The hand cannons roared.

  Not a massed volley—staggered discharge. Continuous noise, smoke, shock.

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  The Oirat horses balked. Some reared. The charge momentum broke.

  The heavy cavalry split left and right, avoiding the kill zone.

  Exactly as Wei expected.

  "They're going to circle and regroup," he said. "Zhao, get ready. They'll hit a different angle next time."

  ---

  The Oirat commander pulled his force back to three hundred yards.

  Regrouping. Assessing.

  Wei counted casualties. Maybe twenty riders down. Negligible losses for them.

  But the charge had been repelled.

  Zhang: "First contact successful. Garrison holding."

  "That was the probe. Now comes the real assault."

  The Oirat force reformed. Different configuration this time.

  Three separate strike groups. Hundred fifty riders each.

  They were going to hit multiple points simultaneously.

  Classic shock tactic—overwhelm defensive coordination.

  Wei called the commanders. "They're splitting their force. Multi-vector assault. Liu, you take north wall primary defense. Zhao, coordinate reserve response across all three vectors. Hu, you've got east wall. Feng, west wall."

  Commands distributed.

  The garrison adjusted.

  The Oirat groups charged.

  All three simultaneously.

  North wall: heavy cavalry straight assault.

  East wall: horse archers in rotating passes.

  West wall: mixed force, probing for weaknesses.

  Liu: "North wall! Brace for impact! Sustained volley fire!"

  The crossbows fired in rotation. Continuous pressure.

  The heavy cavalry took losses but kept coming.

  Hu: "East wall! Fire teams! Rotating volleys on the archers!"

  The horse archers circled, firing from saddle. Arrows rained on the wall.

  Three garrison soldiers went down. One dead, two wounded.

  First friendly casualties.

  The troops wavered slightly.

  Feng: "West wall! They're testing the gate! Reinforce the gate section!"

  The mixed force hit the west gate hard. Trying to force entry.

  Wei watched the battle develop across three fronts.

  This was the moment. Maximum pressure. Multiple threats.

  Either the integration held or it collapsed.

  Zhao positioned reserves. "Section Three! North wall support! Section Four! West gate reinforcement! Section Five! Standby for—"

  An arrow hit him.

  Not fatal. Shoulder wound. But he staggered.

  Lieutenant Feng saw it. Made the call instantly.

  "I've got reserve command! Section Five, east wall support!"

  No hesitation. No confusion.

  Command transferred seamlessly.

  Zhao wrapped the wound and stayed on the wall. "I'm still functional! Maintain coordination!"

  The reserves deployed.

  North wall got twenty reinforcements. The line thickened.

  West gate got twenty more. The defenders held against the battering assault.

  East wall received support just as the archer concentration was building.

  The multi-vector assault was being met with coordinated multi-vector defense.

  Wei felt satisfaction mixed with tension.

  The doctrine was working.

  But the Oirats weren't done.

  ---

  The enemy commander signaled again.

  All three groups pulled back simultaneously.

  Regrouped at four hundred yards.

  Then charged again.

  But this time, they feinted.

  The north and east groups advanced aggressively, drawing attention and fire.

  The west group hung back, then accelerated at the last second.

  Hitting the west wall with concentrated force while the garrison was focused elsewhere.

  "West wall!" Feng called it. "Heavy concentration! They're—"

  The assault hit hard.

  Scaling ladders against the wall. Grappling hooks. Professional siege equipment.

  The Oirats weren't just raiding. They were trying to take the garrison.

  Feng: "West wall sections! Repel boarders! Reserves, I need—"

  Captain Hu cut in. "Reserves already moving! Hold thirty seconds!"

  The west wall defenders fought hand-to-hand. Spears against swords. Desperate close combat.

  Two garrison soldiers went down.

  An Oirat warrior made it onto the wall. Then another.

  Five seconds from breakthrough.

  The reserves hit.

  Twenty soldiers in tight formation. Spears braced. Professional assault.

  They drove the Oirat warriors back. Kicked the ladders down. Cleared the wall.

  The breach was contained.

  But barely.

  Zhao, still bleeding from his shoulder: "They're coordinating better than expected! This isn't opportunistic assault—it's planned!"

  Wei agreed. "They've been watching us. They know we integrated recently. They're testing whether the integration is real or just surface coordination."

  Liu: "How do we prove it's real?"

  "By not breaking. By maintaining discipline. By showing them we're unified."

  The Oirat commander seemed to reach the same conclusion.

  One more push. Maximum pressure.

  All four hundred riders formed up.

  Single massive charge. No subtlety. Pure overwhelming force.

  Zhang: "Oh, fuck. They're going all-in."

  Wei turned to Liu and Zhao. "This is it. Everything we've trained for. Unified command. Coordinated response. Maximum fire discipline."

  Liu nodded. "North wall stands."

  Zhao: "Reserves support wherever needed."

  "Good. Make them pay for every *zhang*."

  ---

  The Oirat cavalry charged as a unified mass.

  Four hundred riders. War cries echoing. Thunder of hooves.

  Terrifying.

  The garrison troops braced.

  Wei saw some soldiers shaking. Others praying. All holding position.

  The training held them.

  Liu: "All sections! Sustained fire! No massed volleys—continuous pressure! Make every shot count!"

  The crossbows fired in waves.

  *Thwip-thwip-thwip-thwip.*

  Not synchronized volleys. Rolling fire. Constant stream of bolts.

  The Oirat charge took casualties. Riders dropping. Horses going down.

  But they kept coming.

  Three hundred yards.

  Two hundred yards.

  The hand cannons opened up.

  *BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.*

  Staggered discharge. Continuous thunder.

  Smoke filled the air. The noise was deafening.

  The Oirat horses balked. The charge slowed.

  But didn't stop.

  One hundred fifty yards.

  The arrow fire from the cavalry was intense now. Garrison soldiers dropping on the walls.

  Zhao: "Reserves! Medical teams! Casualty evacuation!"

  Soldiers moved to pull the wounded back. Others stepped forward to fill gaps.

  The line maintained.

  One hundred yards.

  The Oirat charge split. Half peeled left. Half peeled right.

  Trying to flank.

  Hu: "East sections! Pivot right!"

  Feng: "West sections! Pivot left!"

  The defensive line adjusted.

  The flanking elements hit.

  Hand-to-hand combat on both walls. Brutal. Desperate.

  Wei grabbed a spear from a wounded soldier and moved to the east wall.

  An Oirat warrior made it up a ladder. Wei drove the spear through his chest. Kicked him back down.

  Another warrior. Wei blocked with the spear shaft, twisted, struck low.

  Combat instinct from modern training adapted to 15th-century weapons.

  Around him, garrison soldiers fought with desperate discipline.

  Not panicking. Not breaking.

  Holding.

  Captain Hu fought beside his troops. Sword wet with blood. "Hold the line! Hold the fucking line!"

  Lieutenant Feng coordinated reserves while simultaneously fighting. "Section Four! East wall needs—" He blocked a sword strike. "—needs reinforcement! Move!"

  The battle raged for ten minutes.

  Then the Oirat commander signaled retreat.

  The cavalry pulled back. Disengaged.

  Withdrew to six hundred yards.

  The assault was over.

  ---

  Silence fell across the garrison.

  Just breathing. Groaning wounded. Crackling fires.

  Wei did a quick scan of the walls.

  Garrison soldiers still standing. Exhausted. Bloodied. But standing.

  "Casualty report," he called.

  Zhao, still bleeding: "Preliminary count—eighteen dead. Forty-three wounded. Three critical."

  Heavy losses for a garrison of four hundred.

  But they'd held.

  Liu: "Enemy casualties?"

  Zhang had been counting. "Maybe sixty riders down. Fifteen percent losses. Enough to make them rethink the assault."

  Wei watched the Oirat force at distance.

  They weren't regrouping for another attack. They were pulling back completely.

  "They got their answer," Wei said. "This garrison is functional. Attacking it costs more than it's worth."

  Liu and Zhao stood together, both wounded, both exhausted.

  "We held," Liu said quietly.

  "We held," Zhao agreed.

  The integration had been tested in real combat.

  It held.

  ---

  The garrison spent the next hour securing defenses and treating wounded.

  Wei found Commander Liu on the north wall, supervising repairs.

  "Assessment?"

  Liu didn't look away from his work. "We survived. Barely. Another wave would have broken us."

  "But they didn't send another wave. That's tactical victory."

  "Eighteen dead. Forty-three wounded. That's not victory."

  "That's the cost of war. But you held against four hundred cavalry with an undermanned garrison that was divided two weeks ago. That's significant."

  Liu finally turned. "The integration worked. I didn't think it would. I was wrong."

  "You weren't wrong about your doctrine. You were wrong about it being sufficient alone. Same with Zhao's approach. Both incomplete. Both necessary."

  "Where's the Deputy Commander?"

  "Getting his shoulder treated. He stayed on the wall even after being wounded. Your troops noticed."

  Liu nodded slowly. "He's earned their respect. Mine too."

  "Good. Because the Oirats just demonstrated that frontier combat is escalating. This garrison needs unified leadership permanently, not just during crisis."

  "You think they'll come back?"

  "Not here. You proved you're too costly to crack. They'll target easier garrisons." Wei paused. "Which means we need to get those garrisons functional before they're hit."

  ---

  Wei found Zhao in the medical station. The garrison physician was stitching his shoulder.

  "Status?" Wei asked.

  "Functional. Arrow didn't hit anything critical." Zhao winced as the needle went through. "Liu's assessment?"

  "The integration worked. He's convinced."

  "Good. Because I am too." Zhao looked at Wei directly. "I spent eight months believing my approach was superior. Took a real battle to prove I was half-right at best."

  "Both of you were half-right. That's why integration mattered."

  "What's next?"

  "You and Liu stabilize this garrison over the next week. Then my cadre moves to the next problem. But this one's yours now. Unified command, integrated doctrine, professional garrison."

  "We can hold that."

  "I know. That's why I'm leaving."

  ---

  Wei assembled the garrison that evening.

  Four hundred soldiers minus eighteen dead. Minus forty-three wounded.

  Three hundred thirty-nine functional troops.

  Exhausted. Bloodied. But proud.

  "Today you faced four hundred Oirat cavalry. Professional soldiers. Well-equipped. Well-commanded. You held. You maintained discipline under maximum pressure. You supported each other across factional lines. You functioned as one garrison."

  He paused.

  "Eighteen soldiers died defending these walls. Eighteen families will mourn. That's the cost of what we do. But those eighteen didn't die because of poor doctrine or internal division. They died fighting a professional enemy force with professional skill and unified command. That matters."

  The garrison stood silent.

  "Commander Liu and Deputy Commander Zhao will continue leading this garrison. They've proven they can coordinate effectively. Trust them. Follow their orders. Maintain the integration. When the Oirats return—and they will return—you'll hold again."

  He stepped back.

  Liu and Zhao stepped forward.

  Together.

  Liu: "This garrison is now permanently unified. No factions. No competing doctrines. One command structure. One defensive doctrine. Professional soldiers doing professional work."

  Zhao: "We learned today that unity isn't just policy—it's survival. The integration kept us alive. We maintain it or we die. Simple as that."

  The troops actually cheered.

  Small. Tired. But genuine.

  The garrison that had been broken by internal conflict had been forged into unity by combat.

  ---

  Wei's convoy departed Zhangjiakou three days later.

  Commander Liu and Deputy Commander Zhao stood together at the gate. First time Wei had seen them side by side without tension.

  "Garrison is yours," Wei said. "Keep training. Stay sharp. Support your neighbors when they need it."

  Liu: "Understood. And... thank you. For forcing us to see what we couldn't."

  Zhao: "For not letting us destroy this garrison with our pride."

  Wei nodded. "You did the work. I just made you face the consequences of not doing it. Stay alive."

  The convoy moved out.

  Zhang rode beside Wei. "Three garrisons rebuilt. Twelve to go."

  "Twelve to go. And the Oirats are getting more aggressive."

  "You think we'll finish before they launch a major campaign?"

  Wei looked north toward the frontier's edge.

  The Oirat territories.

  Where something larger was building.

  "No. We're running out of time. But we work with what we have."

  Behind them, Zhangjiakou garrison stood watch on its walls.

  Unified. Functional. Professional.

  Ready for whatever came next.

  One more piece of the frontier restored.

  But the enemy was moving faster than the repairs.

  And the real war was coming.

  ---

  **End of Chapter 23**