Thirty minutes later, Ragna, Kan'u, and Chouhi were on the move. Going by the messenger's report, Kousonsan had actually managed to make it pretty far into Zhuo before the Turbans had started to bottleneck her. At the least, she'd made it past the ransacked border outpost that the Turbans had hit, and was holding camp about an hour and a half away from Xizang, along the major roads that would lead further into the province.
The size of Zhuo's current forces numbered at an even 5000, with 2000 light infantrymen, 2000 heavy infantrymen, and 1000 archers. As generals, Ragna, Kan'u, and Chouhi each commanded a unit composed of 100-man squads. Thirty soldiers in each unit served as the private force for each general. The messenger had reported that up to 10,000 Turbans had been seen in the area, but that didn't bother anyone overmuch. The Turbans had always outnumbered them for the most part, but as time had gone on sheer numbers simply failed to account for the skill of the Zhuo armies.
Still, it would be a tough battle to get through, and though the men in front of them and behind them cracked jokes all the while, Kan'u's mind was directly focused on how to defeat the Turbans' superior numbers, while Chouhi was looking forward to just beating up the Turbans, and Ragna was wondering when in the red hell they were going to reach Kousonsan's camp. He could deal with the walking, but the sameness of the plains around them was beginning to drive him a little bit crazy.
About fifteen minutes out from Kousonsan's current location, Ragna finally gave voice to his internal boredom. "The hell does everything around here look the same for? No farmlands, just a bunch of birds and deer and shit."
"Most settlements aren't big enough to extend out this far, Lord Ragna," Kan'u replied. "We just passed the last village in this area, and they just didn't have the population to warrant building up their farmlands like we have in the capital. There are some villages built around the border outposts of the province, but those are a lot less like normal villages than most are. Pretty much all of them are there to help support the garrison."
Previous skirmishes hadn't taken him out nearly as far as the border, so this was the first Ragna was ever hearing about such things. He wanted to see for himself now, but he knew that business was business—they had Turbans to exterminate, and Kousonsan had to be saved somehow or another. "That so? Huh."
Chouhi nodded. "Yep! Lots of soldiers' families live there, if they can. A lot of the supplies are there mostly for them."
The conversation was interrupted when a soldier ran up to them, looking slightly wild-eyed. "Lord Ragna! There's a group of civilians up ahead, running from a detachment of Turbans. They seem to be farmers from that village we passed earlier. We can see General Kousonsan's camp not too far from here, as well; the detached force got around her blockade."
"How many Turbans and how many civilians?" Kan'u asked. Her Green Dragon Blade had been in her hand since the start of the ride, but her hand clenched more tightly around the green scale-patterned part of the shaft, just below the head.
"Thirty civilians and at least 10,000 Turbans."
Ragna sucked a tooth and growled from his chest, and drew Blood-Scythe. "Shit, then that report we got was for a detached force? Their main body could have twice as many then. No way in hell we're gonna be able to pull off the main fight unless we rescue Kousonsan." He turned to Kan'u. "Aisha. We gotta get those civilians safe, but there's no way we can take all 10,000 of those bastards unless we're all together. We'll get up to there, double time, then you take your people and grab those farmers, get them to safety. Then we regroup and kill those Turbans. Clear?"
Kan'u was shocked that Ragna was using her true name in such a serious situation, as he would normally choose to not call her by name at all, but she managed to hide her pleasant surprise behind her stoic, serious mask. He was using his no-nonsense, no-arguments tone of voice, and she had to match his attitude pound for pound. "As you wish, Lord Ragna."
"Rinrin." When Ragna said her name, Chouhi perked up with a "nya?"' sound. "You and I are gonna be the vanguard and cover Aisha till she gets back." His voice was already cool, but it somehow got positively arctic as he continued. "If I get an arrow in my ass like last time, you're grounded when we get home, got it?"
"Yes, big bro," Chouhi mumbled, hunching down with a grimace on her face.
The three generals immediately quickened their pace while Kan'u shouted out the new orders, and the rest of the army followed behind in double time. After about a ten-minute march, they caught up to the farmers in question, and Kan'u immediately broke off with her squad to take them to safety. Once she was gone, Ragna simply stared into the distance with Chouhi at his side; they could both see the Turbans about fifteen minutes away from them. Chouhi immediately made a catlike growling sound. "What're we gonna do, big bro?"
Ragna stuck Blood-Scythe into the ground and leaned on it as he stared forward. "Put arrows in their faces when they get close enough, then start cutting them down. We last till Aisha gets back, we win."
Chouhi nodded, then frowned. She could see something else moving in front of the Turbans, and so could Ragna. After a minute or so, they both realized that they were seeing four people running straight at them. One was an older woman, while the others were three girls, two of which looked to be about twelve or thirteen while the other was eighteen or so; the Turbans coming after them were still a fair distance behind, but would catch up soon.
Ragna's response was immediate and to the point as he ran towards them, gripping Blood-Scythe so hard he thought his fingers would explode from the pressure. "Shit, stragglers! Rinrin! Let's go!"
Chouhi snapped off a salute. "You got it, big bro!" She then turned to her unit and the remaining forces. "Let's go, people!"