Shahbad Pass is the point on the northward route where Lin’s party first experiences direct gunfire. Its steep approach follows a long, exhausting crossing of mountain paths and open ground; at the pass, a decision to press on rather than rest becomes a matter of survival.

Setting and Approach

The party reaches the foothills after crossing the narrow Kussa Pass in the Hada Mountains. A journey of thirty crow-kilometres through Kussa amounts to nearly one hundred and fifty kilometres of climbing and descending. Beyond it, the route runs for almost fifty kilometres across flatter country, crossing the Arghastan River and its tributaries three times before arriving at Shahbad Pass.

The men are already exhausted from the fast, trotting march across the plain. With Lin’s attention still caught in thoughts of right and wrong, the pass marks a sudden change from arduous travel to armed danger: it is there that the party is fired upon for the first time.

The First Attack

At the foothills, Khader Khan refuses the column’s hoped-for rest and orders the climb to begin. He rides along the line, urging the men to keep moving and maintain their pace. When the first shots come, their continued movement helps save lives, including Lin’s; the column is not stationary and exposed at the foot of the pass.

Lin initially mistakes the gunfire for hollow metallic tapping. Bullets soon strike the ground, the men, and the rock walls. The column scrambles for cover, and Lin drops face-first onto the stony path, trying to deny what he has seen as a man ahead of him is torn open across the back. Men fire from around him, and the dust he breathes in marks his abrupt entry into the war.

His frightened horse turns the scramble for safety into a close physical struggle. Lin has lost the reins; the animal rears, bucks, stamps, and drags him in tight circles, even biting his forearm through three layers of clothing. He gets back to his feet to regain control and avoid being trampled. The obedient horse he had known on the journey becomes, in the confusion of the attack, a threat as well as a means of travel.

Casualties and Significance

Afterward, Khaled Ansari judges that the attackers did not have mortars or heavy machine guns, weapons they would likely have used if available. He therefore considers the assault the work of a small patrol, probably Afghan rather than Russian, testing the party or taking an opportunity. The attack leaves three men wounded and four horses lost; the wounded are taken farther up the pass.

Shahbad Pass consequently becomes the threshold between a punishing journey and open combat. Its importance lies not in a prolonged battle but in the way terrain, fatigue, and Khader Khan’s command shape the first exchange: pressing onward preserves lives, while the gunfire makes the costs of the campaign immediate to Lin.