Chapter 252 — Persuasion Fails: Close Quarters 2
Yeongu did not rush straight into the middle of the yard.
First he looked at where everyone's shoulders, spear shafts, and bowstrings were placed.
The archers were in the rear, and the soldiers in the front row narrowed the gaps between them to block Yeongu.
That narrowed spacing instead became a shield that blocked their own arrows.
The man at the very front came running with both arms spread wide.
Instead of entering his arms, Yeongu slipped half a step aside and drove a phoenix-eye fist, 鳳眼拳, into his 鳩尾— the pit of the stomach.
The second knuckle of his index finger sank into the center of the man's solar plexus.
The man's mouth opened.
His breath could not come out and was trapped inside.
That large body gave out from the knees and slumped forward.
Yeongu used the falling man's shoulder as a foothold.
The moment his sole touched the shoulder, he pressed down and leapt.
The man's body sank beneath him, and Yeongu's body sprang upward.
The soldiers rushing in from behind raised their heads for an instant.
They had never fought a man who came over their heads.
Yeongu twisted his body halfway in the air.
The second man tried to raise his spear shaft to block him, but the spear point was already too low.
Yeongu's toes struck the man's 膻中, the center of his chest.
The man froze with both arms still extended.
His eyes trembled as if his breath had stopped, and he dropped the spear shaft and sank backward.
Yeongu used that shoulder again.
His palm touched the edge of the armor, and his foot stepped on the man's forearm.
Yeongu folded his body and passed over the third man's head.
All the third man saw was the sole of a foot.
Yeongu's heel came down and pressed his 肩井, the hollow of the shoulder.
The strength left the man's shoulder in an instant, and his arm dropped limp.
Yeongu did not fully land on the ground.
He bent his knee, stepped on the back of a soldier, and sprang again.
His body seemed to move lightly over the men, but wherever his foot touched, the other man's balance collapsed.
The man whose back was stepped on pitched forward.
The man whose shoulder was used as a brace buckled at the knees.
The man whose arm was stepped on lost his weapon.
The archers panicked and backed away.
They had arrows on their bowstrings, but they could not shoot.
There was always a Liao soldier in front of Yeongu.
He deliberately hid behind enemy bodies.
He seemed to slip right, then climbed over the back of the soldier on the left.
He seemed to land, then used the shoulder of the man in front as a brace and rose again.
One archer forced himself to draw his bow.
Yeongu pressed down on the head of the soldier in front of him with his palm.
The soldier's neck folded downward and his body dropped low.
Yeongu stepped on that lowered back and fell right before the archer's face.
The archer's eyes widened.
Yeongu's fingertip struck his 人中, the philtrum.
It was a short blow.
The archer dropped his bow, covered his face with both hands, and sank down.
A club came in from the side.
Yeongu grabbed the archer's shoulder and turned his body.
The club struck the archer's back.
The archer screamed and folded forward, and Yeongu used that folded back as another foothold.
His heel struck the 腎兪on the back of the man following behind.
The man took the blow to the lower back, his waist caving inward, and both knees slammed into the ground.
Before his hands could even reach his back, his breath caught and his head lowered.
There were many men.
Yet their numbers were no advantage.
They became a hindrance.
The front row tried to grab Yeongu and was blocked by their own comrades.
The rear row pushed forward and tripped over the fallen.
The archers could not shoot, and the spearmen could not thrust.
Yeongu climbed over those tangled bodies.
He did not leap widely like a running horse.
He stepped short, struck short, and passed over short.
One shoulder became the next forearm.
The forearm became a back.
The back became a knee.
Those who became footholds realized they had been attacked one beat too late.
Their bodies collapsed first, and pain followed a moment later.
One soldier tried to grab Yeongu's ankle.
Yeongu did not pull the ankle away.
He pressed down on the man's hand instead.
The fingers were trapped between the ground and the sole of his foot, and the man swallowed a scream.
Yeongu's other foot struck his 章門.
The man took the blow beneath the ribs and rolled sideways, clutching his flank.
Even while rolling, he could not breathe properly.
The junior general screamed from behind.
"Surround him! Grab him low!"
It was already too late.
To grab him low, Yeongu first had to be on the ground.
Yeongu was already standing on another man's shoulder.
He tucked one knee and pressed the edge of a soldier's helmet with his palm.
The moment the soldier's head turned sideways, Yeongu's toe pressed his 中脘.
The man's stomach caved inward.
Both hands went to his belly, and his body folded as it dropped to the ground.
Yeongu crossed over him and entered the archers.
Archers were weak in close quarters.
A bow was a weapon that killed men at a distance.
When someone fell right before one's eyes, the bow became a burden.
One man threw away his bow and tried to draw his sword.
Another stepped backward and trod on the arm of a fallen comrade.
Yeongu struck the wrist of the man trying to draw his sword with the top of his foot.
The hand gripping the sword hilt opened.
Then his toe struck the 膻中again.
The man clutched his chest and fell backward.
The archer behind him tried to catch him and collapsed with him.
Yeongu climbed onto the two falling men.
Under his soles, armor, bone, and breath tangled together.
He stood on one man's shoulder.
At that instant every eye in the yard turned to him.
A bound prisoner stood above the heads of men.
The hem of his plain military robe swayed in the dust, and blood and dirt smeared his face.
Then he came down again.
His descending heel struck near the 肺兪.
The man hit in the upper back stopped mid-breath.
A cough burst out, and his body bent forward.
Spit and blood sprayed from his mouth.
Yeongu did not stop.
He feinted to the right, then folded left.
His hands seemed still tied behind him, but he had little need for them.
Shoulders and knees, toes and heels were enough.
He used human bodies as a road.
That road kept collapsing, and on top of the collapsed road a new road appeared.
The soldiers in the yard slowly gave way.
No one knew who retreated first.
When one stepped back, two followed.
When two stepped back, the archers lowered their bows.
To shoot an arrow, they needed empty space.
But Yeongu was always between one man and another.
If they aimed at him, a comrade's back entered the line first.
At last, one huge soldier clenched his teeth and charged.
He spread both arms wide, trying to cover Yeongu's body.
Yeongu did not dodge.
Instead he entered low and drove his knee into the inside of the man's thigh.
The man's leg gave out.
Yeongu stepped on the collapsing shoulder, sprang up, and dropped onto the archer behind him.
The phoenix-eye fist struck the 鳩尾.
The archer sank to the ground without taking even one breath.
Only then did the yard grow quiet.
The fallen men were tangled over one another.
Some curled up clutching their bellies.
Some lay face down, gripping their backs.
Some bled from the mouth and could only blink.
Even those without large visible wounds could not rise.
Those struck at a single point inside the body were pinned down by a shock deeper than any wound visible outside.
Yeongu came down among them.
He placed the fully loosened rope back over his wrists as if still bound.
It was almost a habit, meant to make him appear tied.
He let out one long breath and looked at the junior general.
"I told you to send the letter up. Why are you sitting on it and wasting time? If you can't handle it, do you think anyone will praise you for holding onto it?"