Translator: DragonRider
The southern city of Lenan, the Wan Kingdom.
A day before, Lenan was occupied by the army of the Great Wen, who then encamped outside the city. Led by Yuwen Tong, they had taken two south-western prefectures as well as the south-eastern prefecture of Yuezhou and were now outside Lenan facing off against a Wan army from the north.
To the north of Lenan was Chaodu City to the north of which was the Wan River.
If the Wan army failed to hold Chaodu City which was their last barrier south of the Wan River, they would have to retreat to the areas north of the Wan River, and when that happened, the whole south of the Wan Kingdom would, for all intents and purposes, be under the control of the Great Wen.
Nobody in the Wan Kingdom could have foreseen that the army of the Great Wen would take those cities so quickly. They had defeated the garrisons stationed in the two south-western prefectures and the south-eastern prefecture of Yuezhou so easily as cutting bean curd with a knife. It was as if the garrisons were totally powerless to resist. Though another Wan army had marched south and were now standing in a standoff with the army of the Great Wen, Wan people still had no grounds for optimism. Chaodu City constituted their last barrier against the enemy. However, there was no natural barrier between Chaodu City and Lenan. In fact, the area between the two cities was basically a vast expanse of flat land, with no strategically advantageous terrain whatsoever that the Wan army could make use of…
“Given that Yuwen Tong has encamped his men right outside Lenan, he must think he could take us apart without breaking a sweat. What an arrogant bastard!”
In the main tent of the Wan army, all officers were sitting in a circle, including Chen Jing the commander-in-chief. Someone cursed Yuwen Tong loudly out of rage. Actually all Wan officers had been filled with anger ever since Yuwen Tong had led his men into south-western Wan Kingdom.
Chen Jing the commander-in-chief had a grave face. He was angry as well, but he better than any of his subordinates knew that anger was no solution to any of the problems they were faced with at the moment. Half a month ago, all Wan courtiers, brimming with confidence, had been so positive that the Wan Kingdom and the Luohai Kingdom would be able to take the Great Wen with a coalition offensive as if the day when they would carve up the fertile land and rich cities of the Great Wen was in sight, their faces glowing with excitement despite the fact that the war hadn’t even started yet. Only when Yuwen Tong’s army had stormed the south-west and Xue Chi had been held back outside Shengzhou Pass had the courtiers come to realize things were not going as they had expected, and all of them had begun to curse and swear. Eventually and resignedly, they had assigned Chen Jing to lead an army south to save the day, but if truth be told, Chen Jing was not sure if he could get the job done.
He had never had any dealings with Yuwen Tong before. Many years ago he had had some dealings with Yuwen Tong’s father and grandfather, but ever since his daughter had been made the queen consort, he, as the monarch’s father-in-law, had never left the capital city or directed any military operations again. For him, the royal court, where there was nobody wielding a saber or a spear, but which was fraught with intrigue and undercurrents, had become his new battlefield. This was his first time being on the actual battleground in many years. Chen Jing was fully aware that he was getting old, that he was now inferior to Yuwen Tong in terms of both physical strength and fighting spirit. On top of that, troops of the Great Wen, who had killed thousands along the way, were now radiating an almost palpable aura of death. The Wan army, though not having set eyes on the enemy yet, were already in fear. In these circumstances, it was almost impractical to hold back Yuwen Tong’s army with the defense of Chaodu City which didn’t have any advantages whatsoever in terms of terrain.
Therefore, Chen Jing, having come to know that Yuwen Tong had taken Lenan, planned to retreat to the north bank of the Wan River and take advantage of the natural barrier to keep Yuwen Tong’s army at bay. Even if he was unable to drive off Yuwen Tong, he could hold the north and wait for Xue Chi to take Shengzhou Pass forcing Yuwen Tong to sue for peace or retreat to the Great Wen to save the capital. Unlike Xue Chi who deemed it an honor to die on the battlefield, Chen Jing tended to see things from the perspective of politicians. The days when heroic deeds and a glorious death appealed to him more than anything were long gone. Now he preferred to play it safe, not craving to render any meritorious service, hoping only to make no obvious mistakes.
However, Chen Jing also knew that it was inadvisable to disclose any of these to others, which was why he had only intimated them to the couple of henchmen of his and had never breathed a word to any outsiders. After all, Chaodu City still stood, and a large number of Wan subjects were still in there. If he abandoned Chaodu City without putting up a fight, it wouldn’t be long before he met his end.
…
In Lenan.
Yuwen Tong gave a sneer as he put the intelligence report about the inactivity of the Wan army down on to the table. The sole reason why the Wan army remained inactive was because its commander-in-chief wanted it to. Others might be confused as to what that geriatric Chen Jing was thinking about, but Yuwen Tong could guess it without much difficulty. The Wan army was laying low, but he wouldn’t. His troops in Shengzhou Pass were still under attack from Xue Chi’s men, so he must take Chaodu City and cross the Wan River as soon as possible.
As a result, what Yuwen Tong was occupied with was making preparations for his army to cross the Wan River quickly.
The Wan River rose in the uncharted snow-capped mountains in western Wan Kingdom. Except for a couple of nomadic tribes dwelling at the feet of the snowy mountains where there were some meadows, hardly anybody inhabited that area. Beyond the snowy mountains lay some western micro-states the subjects of which intermingled. Owing to the lofty snowy long mountain range in between, those western mini-states had scarcely had any conflicts with the Wan Kingdom, and there were some caravans traveling between the two sides on a regular basis. The middle reaches of the Wan River ran through the middle of the Wan Kingdom, and the lower reaches of it wound its way south-east, went underground somewhere and through some mountains before entering the Great Wen where it branched off into several tributaries, and where it was, naturally, no longer called the Wan River.
The middle reaches of the Wan River were quite wide, and were torrential in some sections where the terrain was steep. The section of it outside Chaodu City was relatively slow, and there was ferry service, but there was no way the Wan army was going to let them cross the river uneventfully. How to withstand the Wan army’s attack and cross the river without suffering too many casualties to be able to defeat the Wan army after crossing it was what Yuwen Tong needed to figure out.
He had spent three years formulating this plan, so of course he had long since considered the thorny problem of how to cross the Wan river. Naturally, some preparations had been made, and it was still with the help of Jiahe Chamber of Commerce that he had sorted it out.
Right inside Chaodu City was a branch of Jiahe Chamber of Commerce, which was the largest branch in the Wan Kingdom outside of the one in the capital. His men had hidden in the city the tools they needed to cross the river: boats – components of boats, to be precise. It was impossible to hide any ready-made boats in there. Large numbers of boat-makers and tools required to make boats had been hidden somewhere outside the city. All he needed to do was enter the city, find the components, transfer them to the secret location and have the boats built as soon as possible. Building large ships was beyond their capabilities, and they didn’t have that much time anyway. The boats were going to be built according to a design drawing found among those long-lost manuscripts presented to him by the Millennium Pavilion. They were a kind of canoes, to be more accurate, which could cross to the opposite bank quickly with wind filling their sails. There was also a kind of Canoe Formation, which required teamwork between skilled boatmen and soldiers with great arm strength and kung fu skills, who were supposed to keep a chain net stay in its position to shield the fleets of canoes from salvos of arrows fired by the Wan army on the other bank.
All those men had infiltrated into southern Wan Kingdom and gone into hiding before the start of the war. After Yuwen Tong took the south, they had come out of hiding and returned to Yuwen Tong’s army.
“Take Chaodu City as soon as possible so that we’ll have enough time to build the canoes we need,” Yuwen Tong said to the officers in front of him.
Aside from Yuwen Jin, He Xiao, Xiao Jiangyue and a couple of newly promoted officers were also in the army led by Yuwen Tong. Having been through a lot of fights along the way, every one of them was emanating an air of ferocity as menacing as a sharp blade. They were now sitting in a circle, and any common person would find the atmosphere in the tent unbearable if they walked in.
“He Xiao and Jin are to go to this place to find what we need. The others are to go with me to deal with Chen Jing’s army,” said Yuwen Tong. Next, he briefed them in on his battle plans in a detailed way in an effort to make sure that they could take Chaodu City with the highest possible efficiency.
Having been assigned their respective tasks, Yuwen Jin and He Xiao left first to make arrangements. Yuwen Tong conferred with Xiao Jiangyue for another few moments about what they needed to arrange next, and then the army was put into combat readiness.
…
Early the next morning, when it was not fully light yet, with mist patches still lingering, the ground began to quake to the beat of war drums.
The Wan army had been ready for the fight for quite some time as well, but just as Chen Jing had predicted, the morale of his army paled into insignificance compared to that of Yuwen Tong’s army who were unstoppable. Eventually, his men were retreating, stopping at intervals to fight, appearing to be on the losing side.
…
Like a child who had been given hope but soon lost it, people of Chaodu City watched the Wan army engage the enemy several times before being forced into falling back while fighting. At last, the Wan army crossed the Wan River to the northern bank. Before leaving, they burnt all ships and boats except for the ones they needed to cross the river, killed all craftsmen good at building boats and set a fire to the ferry crossing, making sure that the army of the Great Wen could find no boat to cross the river in, no artisan who could build boats for them, and no ferry crossing they could use.
Residents of Chaodu City were cursing and swearing loudly. It had never crossed their minds that the Wan army would kill their own countrymen when the enemy hadn’t killed a single civilian yet. Blood was flowing on the ground in almost all the streets in the city which was now filled with wail and abuse.
Yuwen Tong’s men didn’t hurt the civilians when occupying the city. They only killed the resisters and those who must be disposed of, making an example of them, quickly getting things under control. After the situation stabilized, Yuwen Tong made arrangements for his army to guard against potential attack from Chen Jing’s men on the other side of the river, and at the same time, following the plan, had some soldiers quickly find all the materials they needed, which had been hidden somewhere beforehand, and then had the boat-makers start making canoes as fast as they could.
The Wan army were on the other bank of the river, and Yuwen Tong had taken some measures to keep the operations secret, so Chen Jing was totally unaware of what the army of the Great Wen were doing. Seeing that they had formed up into battle formation along the bank but were showing no inclination to take further action, he came to believe that they were unable to figure out a way to cross the river.
Chen Jing felt a sense of relief, thinking that it would be some time before the enemy could cross the Wan River, eagerly anticipating the day Xue Chi would take Shengzhou Pass. However, a fact he didn’t know was that Xue Chi, trapped in a large-scale Formation, hadn’t taken in any water for two days, his lips parched and cracked, his face pasty, looking as withered as dry firewood, and was now cursing loudly at Yuwen Tong and the troops guarding Shengzhou Pass.
“You despicable characters. Stop using these underhand methods and fight us like men, will you? Are all of you gutless wimps?!”
On hearing Xue Chi’s loud curses, Ling Zhang came to know that Xue Chi was really getting anxious.
It had taken a lot of manpower and time to deploy this large-scale Formation, and it was only fair that the Formation should trap them for another day or two. However, there was a downside to it: if his own men entered it, they would be trapped in it as well. Were it not for this, the Shengzhou garrison would have some time ago gone into the Formation and finished off the Wan soldiers weakened within an inch of their lives by thirst and hunger like cutting vegetables.
However, though going in there to wipe out the Wan army was not an option for the moment, they would be exterminated after they got out of the Formation.
Standing on the ramparts of Shengzhou Pass, gazing into the thick fog the whole battleground was cloaked in, Ling Zhang listened to the various wails and expletives for a while and came to have a new understanding of what this Formation could do to its victims. This kind of good stuff must be put to good use. Maybe it would prove useful in the remainder of the war. Of course, for a Formation to work, he needed to find the time to deploy it first. Therefore, in the final analysis, its efficacy depended on whether it was deployed at the right time, in the right place and by the right people. It constituted a pretty good defensive measure, but couldn’t be used as an offensive weapon.
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