Chapter 281: Go to Luzhou and Pull Off Something Big

If one had to find a word to describe this young Lord Sun, "unpredictable" might suit him best.

As for this campaign to pacify the southwest, or rather, for this expedition of his own, it could be said that Qi Yuangong had done a great deal of mental preparation on the very day he received the order.

He had prepared himself mentally for every scenario. For example, winning victories in the southwest, rendering great service, and returning to receive rewards from Your Majesty. Even down to how he should decline the rewards and how to consult his father's opinion — all such matters, Qi Yuangong had already thought through.

Another example: if this southwest campaign ended in defeat and the Tiger Roar Battalion suffered heavy losses, what he should do. He had even prepared himself for death in battle. Before setting out, he had already written a farewell letter — if he never made it back, the letter would be delivered to his father's hands.

Of course, defeat was simply not an option — Qi Yuangong had full confidence in both the Tiger Roar Battalion and himself. But that's just how soldiers are: regardless of rank or the strength of one's army, before every campaign, nearly everyone up and down the ranks prepares to die for the country and leaves a farewell letter at home. After all, on the battlefield, blades and arrows have no eyes — accidents have happened before.

It was just that the current situation was far beyond Qi Yuangong's expectations. When he had followed Sun Chuanting out on the surprise attack on Chongqing, Qi Yuangong had never imagined such circumstances would arise.

In Qi Yuangong's view, this raid was extremely important and also extremely perilous.

The reason was very simple: leading men into rebel territory to kill the enemy leader — that was called a decapitation strike, something Qi Yuangong had studied before, but it wasn't supposed to be played out the way it was now.

Moreover, they were on a long-distance forced march, not a silent infiltration — the danger was far too great. If things went wrong, they could be completely surrounded, and then they would likely die a miserable death.

But the actual situation was nothing like Qi Yuangong had predicted. What was happening now had simply shattered his understanding.

Along the way, when this army encountered large rebel forces, they hid; when they met small ones, they fought. Big cities were bypassed; small towns were wiped out directly. This hadn't surprised Qi Yuangong, because that had been the original plan.

But the situation had taken a different turn, and that change came from Sun Chuanting.

This young Lord Sun was truly without equal.

Qi Yuangong was only a military officer, somewhat at a loss for words — for the moment, he didn't know how to describe Sun Chuanting.

After every battle at every location, this young Lord Sun would begin accepting surrenders.

Originally, Qi Yuangong had even been prepared to shoot the prisoners and bury those insolent rebel remnants alive on the spot.

But young Lord Sun did not do that. He stopped Qi Yuangong, incorporated all these men into his ranks, and gave them a hot meal. At the same time, he had been recruiting people all along the way — whenever he saw poor commoners who couldn't survive in some place, young Lord Sun would give them grain and take them into the ranks.

He kept collecting them all along the way, like picking up scraps — stopping and going, gathering as he went — and had already taken in over twenty thousand people.

Qi Yuangong had opposed Sun Chuanting's approach countless times. The reason was simple: these people were a motley rabble, and you still had to find grain to feed them. What use were they when real fighting broke out?

Sun Chuanting would just smile and say, "I know what I'm doing," then ignore Qi Yuangong entirely.

This left Qi Yuangong feeling quite frustrated. Watching these gaunt, sallow-faced poor folk who had finally eaten their first full meal, straggling along the road behind the Tiger Roar Battalion and the troops under Guizhou Regional Commander Zhang Yanfang, Qi Yuangong didn't know what to say.

Not only could these people not help, but when real fighting came they might very well cause chaos — and then the losses would outweigh the gains.

But once again, things defied Qi Yuangong's expectations. From that day on, this young Lord Sun had been busy among these crowds — eating with them, learning about their circumstances, and also urging them not to fight among themselves.

And starting from the third day, young Lord Sun actually arranged for them to train while they marched.

Qi Yuangong had thought it would all be futile effort, but the result was exactly the opposite — these people actually drilled into some semblance of shape.

When they encountered small skirmishes on the road, Lord Sun would send them up to practice. Several thousand would go fight one day, another several thousand the next — repeating this over and over, until now these twenty-odd thousand had actually become an army.

And from the look of it, they were even more elite than the men under Guizhou Regional Commander Zhang Yanfang. Though they lacked good armor and weapons, these people were surprisingly fierce.

Yesterday there was a battle — the rebels had five thousand men, and young Lord Sun sent out five thousand as well. Five thousand against five thousand, and the result was that he routed the enemy completely; it could be said the situation was one-sided from the very start.

Young Lord Sun picked a five-hundred-man shock force from the five thousand, which smashed the enemy's formation to pieces, and the men behind surged forward in the wake of the breakthrough, utterly defeating the enemy.

Qi Yuangong thought a mass slaughter would follow, but young Lord Sun pulled another surprise — he incorporated all those rebels directly into a new unit.

Qi Yuangong was very worried. You've just killed a bunch of them — maybe some of the dead were brothers or kin of these survivors. Under such circumstances, they would surely turn traitor on you; selling intelligence would be the least of it. If they switched sides on the actual battlefield, that would be disastrous.

Carrying this concern, Qi Yuangong went to talk with Sun Chuanting. After learning the full details, Qi Yuangong discovered he had been worrying over nothing.

Because this young Lord Sun had screened everyone from the very beginning, picking only those who were extremely poor, extremely destitute, and unable to survive. As for those who had some standing among the rebels, or even minor officers — all of them were cut down with a single stroke of the blade.

Young Lord Sun then selected men of prestige from among these soldiers and directly drilled them into an army.

Just like that, the force was approaching thirty thousand. At this rate, by the time they reached Chongqing, this would no longer be any kind of raid or surprise attack — it would be a snowball rolling over everything in its path.

Watching young Lord Sun approach, Qi Yuangong didn't know what to say.

Seeing Qi Yuangong, a smile appeared on Sun Chuanting's face — somewhat weary, but very pleased. He was walking on the right path, and doing well.

"There's something I'd like to discuss with you." Sun Chuanting looked at Qi Yuangong and spoke slowly.

Qi Yuangong was taken aback, feeling rather helpless.

All these days, this young Lord Sun had been doing whatever he pleased — why was he suddenly coming to consult him about something?

But Qi Yuangong dared not be remiss. This young Lord Sun enjoyed the deep trust of the Grand Coordinator. And that wasn't even the most important part — Qi Yuangong had come from the capital, so he knew very well what standing this young Lord Sun had in the capital.

He was the most trusted of the trusted of the current Your Majesty. Everyone said the current Your Majesty valued him greatly and was certain to promote him.

Though Qi Yuangong knew his own father also enjoyed the Emperor's favor, that man was a civil official while he himself was a military officer — someone like this was not to be provoked.

As long as nothing bad came of it, he was happy to go along.

So Qi Yuangong asked with simple honesty: "May I ask what instructions Lord Sun has?"

"I want to find a large city to attack." Sun Chuanting said unhurriedly, a confident light shining in his eyes.

Qi Yuangong was stunned.

Attack a large city?

Hadn't they agreed to bypass big cities?

Why did he suddenly want to attack one?

Somewhat bewildered, Qi Yuangong asked: "Why?"

"There are several reasons." Sun Chuanting wasn't anxious either — for the first time in all these days, he explained with great patience: "The first reason is to train the troops. We're going to attack Chongqing. Though these men have seen some battle and drilled for a while, in my view that's far from enough."

"The one we're going to fight is She Chongming of Chongqing — we must be prepared for the possibility that Chongqing has already fallen. When that time comes, we'll be attacking Chongqing, and Chongqing is a major city. I'm afraid they'll falter then, and that would spell trouble."

"Second, I want to get them some equipment. They have some, but it's far too poor. The elite rebel forces should be in the big cities, and they've probably captured quite a bit of our equipment — I want to go take it back."

"Also, in the big cities, those rebels must have done plenty of looting and should have plenty of good things in hand — I want to seize those back as well. When the time comes, I'll take half to reward these soldiers; the other half I'll return to the commoners who were robbed. Those fine goods should belong to the wealthy households — giving them back half, they shouldn't dare complain. We can use these things to boost morale."

Qi Yuangong looked at Sun Chuanting and was once again left speechless, truly not knowing what to say.

Was this alright?

Thinking it over, it seemed his objections would be futile anyway, so Qi Yuangong asked directly: "Then does Lord Sun have a target in mind?"

"I want to attack Luzhou." Sun Chuanting said firmly: "Luzhou lies in the southeast of Sichuan, at the junction of Sichuan, Chongqing, Guizhou, and Yunnan, where the Yangtze and Tuo Rivers converge. The terrain there is extremely important."

Qi Yuangong naturally knew Luzhou was very important. It was called Luzhou now, but in the past it was known as Jiangyang — this place had been a strategic battleground since ancient times.

Since the rebels had occupied Luzhou, they would naturally station heavy troops there. Moreover, having fought their way here all along, the rebels must have received word by now—they might have already gathered a large force there. How could it be easy to take?

"If we can take Luzhou, we'll have a stranglehold on the rebels' throat. They'll be bottled up in Sichuan, and there's no way they can push toward us."

"Moreover, Luzhou has well-developed waterways. We can transport supplies by river, making Luzhou our logistics base. As long as we station heavy troops here, the rebels can never fight their way back. At the same time, we can build warships here and use the waterways." Sun Chuanting grew more and more excited as he spoke, an eager look on his face.

"Lord Sun, the question is—can we actually take it?" Qi Yuangong said hesitantly. "If the rebels have massed their forces there, I'm afraid it won't be easy."

"A flock of chickens and clay dogs—nothing but goods for sale with price tags stuck on their heads." Sun Chuanting's tone was utterly contemptuous. "You've seen it along the way—these rebels seem to make a great show of force, but in truth they're strong outside and weak within. They're nothing. These people sit in their well in the southwest and think the sky is small, holding themselves in high regard, when in truth they amount to nothing."

"This time we'll teach them a lesson and show them what the might of Heaven truly means." Sun Chuanting said with a grim face. "We'll strike Luzhou. Your men can just watch from behind. Since this is training anyway, let the new army go up and try their hand."

Qi Yuangong thought it over—since his own Tiger Roar Battalion wouldn't be going up, it didn't matter to him. It wasn't his men who would die. As for how many of the new army died, that was irrelevant; if they died, they could just recruit and train more.

Qi Yuangong nodded with an air of indifference. "Then I'll follow Lord Sun's orders entirely."

"Good, we set out immediately. Let's go to Luzhou and do something big!" Sun Chuanting rose to his feet, rubbing his hands together excitedly.

And so the army began its march toward Luzhou, spreading out in full formation with wagons and horses, making a tremendous show of force—with no intention whatsoever of sneaking in or proceeding cautiously.

In truth, a surprise attack was no longer feasible. With five thousand or ten thousand men, slipping through quietly might still work; but the force had already swelled to nearly thirty thousand—how could they possibly sneak in?

Since they couldn't quietly snatch a big advantage, they might as well go about it openly and brazenly for a satisfying result.

The great army advanced toward Luzhou in full, imposing array.

Sun Chuanting had even specifically ordered Qi Yuangong to bring up the rear with the Tiger Roar Battalion.

Behind the army, Qi Yuangong gazed at the dragon-like column of troops and felt somewhat helpless.

Because after that conversation, the young Lord Sun had gone off again to mingle with the newly recruited soldiers of the new army.