Chapter 283: The Four Great Guardians

"Lord Sun, Luzhou City is just ahead." Qi Yuangong came to Sun Chuanting's side and said.

The expression on Qi Yuangong's face was still very grave. Although this time Young Lord Sun had agreed not to use his own Roaring Tiger Battalion, if the new army fought poorly, he would still have to go up himself afterward, so Qi Yuangong was somewhat worried inside.

To put it plainly, Qi Yuangong did not trust these soldiers of Sun Chuanting's. These new troops were of low origin — all sorts of riffraff, including refugees Young Lord Sun had picked up along the road — and they had only been formed for a very short time. Could they fight?

Sun Chuanting, by contrast, did not care. He glanced at Qi Yuangong and said calmly, "Fine, then give the orders."

As he spoke, Sun Chuanting raised his hand and waved it in the air. Behind him, four people stepped forward.

These four were each quite distinctive. One of them was extremely tall, with a very burly build — he even stood half a head taller than Qi Yuangong.

Mind you, Qi Yuangong was considered very tall in the Great Ming, considerably taller than the average person. Yet this man was even bigger and more imposing than Qi Yuangong, which made Qi Yuangong silently straighten his chest.

This tall man was named Zhang Hu, also picked up by Sun Chuanting on the road. Zhang Hu was a butcher. According to his own account, when this rebellion broke out, he had protected his entire family, blade in hand, and fought his way out, hiding with his kin in the mountains for a long time already.

In the bitter cold, there was truly nothing left to eat in the mountains — the edible wild fruit had long since been picked clean by other refugees. And because so many people were roaming the hills, even birds and beasts rarely showed themselves.

Zhang Hu had squatted for several days before catching two wild pheasants. When he heard that the imperial army had arrived, he wanted to bring the animal pelts he had hunted earlier to trade for grain — and that was when he ran into Sun Chuanting on the road.

Somehow or other, Sun Chuanting talked Zhang Hu around, and Zhang Hu brought his entire family into the new army. In recent days, Zhang Hu had become a leading general under Sun Chuanting.

To put it plainly, he followed behind Sun Chuanting — wherever Sun Chuanting went, this Zhang Hu went too, looking for all the world like a bodyguard or hired thug.

Qi Yuangong always felt that Zhang Hu's head didn't work too well — simple-minded — but there was no question about his fighting ability.

Beside Zhang Hu stood a thin man, very short and very dark, with features clearly different from those of the Great Ming people. A sinister ruthlessness showed through his pitch-black pupils.

This one was a fairly typical case — he had been a minor figure among the rebels. According to what was said, he had once been a small chieftain with his own little stockade. This time he had been transferred over by She Chongming, only to lose to the green new-army recruits Sun Chuanting had hastily assembled.

In Qi Yuangong's view, a man carrying such uncertain factors ought to be killed, yet Sun Chuanting had kept him.

The thin man's name was Sangba. Nobody knew what ethnicity the name belonged to — all anyone knew was that he was called Sangba.

The thin man Sangba was another capable general under Sun Chuanting, and he was highly valued by Sun Chuanting as well, commanding all the foreigners under Sun Chuanting's hand.

Whenever any foreigners from the rebel side surrendered, Sun Chuanting handed them all over to this Sangba to command.

This fellow used a curved saber — a very short one — and he was extremely agile, very fast. Qi Yuangong also admitted he was a good hand with a curved blade.

Of course, on the battlefield proper, there was little room for such a specialist to shine, but at certain particular moments he proved quite useful.

Besides these two, the remaining two were — one was Sangba's brother, named Sangshen. This fellow was nothing like his elder brother; it was as if their mother had given him all the food when they were children. He was fat as could be, with a big belly thrust out.

In Qi Yuangong's view, if this Sangshen were to fight on horseback, the horse couldn't even carry him. What was Young Lord Sun thinking, taking this one in and wanting him to come fight?

This fellow had a plump, big round face and went around smiling all day. Nobody knew what he was thinking, but one look told you he was not someone to provoke lightly — and nobody knew what his talent was.

Qi Yuangong thought of a word to describe this Sangshen: a classic smiling tiger.

The last person was rather more interesting — this one was a woman.

Women among the rebels were nothing strange; even some of the native chieftains in various regions were women. Customs differed.

This woman was very dark-skinned and not tall. Setting aside whether she could fight, she was actually quite frightening to look at. There was a scar on her face that ran from left to right across her entire face, giving the impression that even her nose bridge had been cut through.

Her name was Liao Sanniang. According to what was said, her ancestors had also been people of the Great Ming, and from an official family at that.

This Liao Sanniang was not a rebel — she had once been the head of a stockade. Of course, that was the nice way of putting it; put unpleasantly, it was a bandit nest.

They called themselves a horse caravan gang, making their living by robbing homes and collecting road tolls. Many merchants on this route had heard of her. "Ride the gate, cross the ridge, Liao Sanniang. When King Yama comes to buy your life, don't make excuses." That was how the underworld described Liao Sanniang.

"Ride the gate, cross the ridge" meant that when you traveled a road, if you had the slightest bump or scrape along the way, that was Liao Sanniang's doing. Meeting Sanniang was like King Yama coming to buy your life — don't make excuses, just behave obediently.

Qi Yuangong had no idea how Lord Sun had subdued this Liao Sanniang. At the time, Young Lord Sun had taken a few men to negotiate with this Liao Sanniang, and after the talks she had brought her people down the mountain, and then this Liao Sanniang became Lord Sun's trusted confidante.

Now, these four people behind Young Lord Sun — in Qi Yuangong's eyes, they were Lord Sun's Four Great Guardians. Standing there, each with their own peculiar traits, they even made Lord Sun himself look strange and odd.

Sun Chuanting didn't even look back at the four behind him. He said directly and imperiously, "Sangba, take your men and scout around Luzhou City. Be careful — if you run into anyone, fall back immediately. If you encounter an ambush, we'll wipe them out first."

"Yes, my lord." Sangba nodded, answered respectfully, turned, and led his men off to scout the situation around Luzhou City.

This Sangba spoke the Great Ming tongue poorly, always giving one a feeling of gnashing teeth, and Qi Yuangong always felt a knot of discomfort in his stomach.

After Sangba left, Sun Chuanting continued his instructions: "Sangshen, take men to back up your brother. It's certainly not safe around here — don't let the job fail and get people lost in there."

"Rest assured, my lord — nothing will go wrong on our watch." Sangshen answered with a smile, then led his men off to support his elder brother.

Turning his head to glance at Liao Sanniang, Sun Chuanting said with a smile, "Take your people and get ready. Spread out around the area, find good spots, and just squat there. Isn't lying in wait your specialty?"

Liao Sanniang nodded, said nothing, and quietly led her people away.

As for what Sun Chuanting had said, Liao Sanniang saw nothing wrong with it. We're bandits, we're a horse caravan gang — robbery is naturally our specialty, so lying in wait is a very necessary activity.

So-called lying in wait meant finding a place to crouch where you couldn't be discovered, secretly watching those people. You couldn't exactly let people sense there were bandits ahead, could you?

While lying in wait, you also had to be able to figure out how much goods the merchants had and how many men and horses they had.

Qi Yuangong knew what Liao Sanniang had gone to do — to put it plainly, she was setting up hidden sentries.

He looked at Young Lord Sun with some helplessness.

Young Lord Sun, just what kind of people are these under your command?

Not a single one of them looks like a soldier.

In any case, Qi Yuangong looked down on them. But since Young Lord Sun was sending these people to fight rather than putting the Roaring Tiger Battalion on the battlefield, Qi Yuangong couldn't very well say anything.

Glancing at Zhang Hu, Sun Chuanting instructed, "Pass the order: rest for two hours, then prepare to attack the city."

"My lord, shouldn't we press the attack in one go while our morale is high?" Qi Yuangong looked at Sun Chuanting and said hesitantly.

Even though Qi Yuangong was not deeply versed in the art of war, he had still heard of striking while the iron was hot.

As the saying goes, "With one breath you take the city; a second breath and it flags; a third and it is spent."

These men had all force-marched to Luzhou City. If they rested now instead of attacking, it would deflate everyone's spirit.

"Maybe they'll see us resting and come out to hit us." Sun Chuanting glanced at Qi Yuangong and said in a relaxed tone.

Hearing this, Qi Yuangong didn't know what to say.

Were the rebels in Luzhou City fools?

Look at the men we've brought — nearly fifty thousand troops. How many in that city would dare to charge out?

Sun Chuanting glanced at Qi Yuangong and said with a grave expression, "Your family has deep military learning. In his day, Young Lord Qi's art of war dominated the realm — he swept north and south with no rival. Your father was also a valiant general of the Great Ming. By rights, I shouldn't be telling you these things."

Hearing this, Qi Yuangong nearly wept. He quickly stepped forward and bowed to Sun Chuanting, saying with the utmost outward respect, "Lord Sun, the Master said, 'When three walk together, there must be one who can be my teacher' — and how much more so with a great talent like Lord Sun. To receive Lord Sun's instruction is my honor. I beg Lord Sun not to begrudge his teachings."

In truth, that was not what Qi Yuangong was thinking at all. He was frantic inside—"Come on, Master Sun, hurry up and tell me, what exactly are you thinking?"

"What exactly do you plan to do? If you don't say it soon, I'm going to burst from holding it in."

Sun Chuanting naturally had no idea what was going through Qi Yuangong's mind, but he was quite satisfied with Qi Yuangong's attitude.

So Sun Chuanting began to speak with great earnestness: "In the art of war, there is the favor of heaven, the advantages of earth, and the harmony of men. Many people say this, but I hold some rather different views."

Qi Yuangong was extremely curious about the views Master Sun spoke of, but he knew he could not rush him—the more one pressed, the slower this Master Sun spoke.

"What is called the favor of heaven, the advantages of earth, and the harmony of men—many times they are fixed, but many times they are fluid. Here we are in Sichuan, with very few troops in hand. Though your men are elite, there are only five thousand. Gathered together they are formidable; scattered apart, they have no combat strength to speak of."

Qi Yuangong nodded, but in his heart he was already calculating how to bombard Luzhou city with cannons.

"If I had fifty thousand men like the ones behind you, I would not need to do anything—I would simply push straight through. But I do not."

"One who commands must not sit and wait; he must learn and apply with flexibility. The favor of heaven, the advantages of earth, the harmony of men—when it comes down to it, all must be wielded from the mind. Since His Majesty has sent us to the southwest to suppress the rebellion, we must make use of everything that can be used."

"If it were merely a matter of transferring a hundred thousand troops from Huguang, then anyone could do this task. A commander must consider doing what others cannot do—likewise, an official must do the same."

"Accomplish more with the smallest cost—that is how one stands out from others. If what you do is something anyone else could do, then why should you be the one chosen?"

"Look at when we first arrived—no one behind us, no blades in our hands. What could we have accomplished in a place like Luzhou?"

"Now look at the present—we have fifty thousand troops in hand. Though they have shortcomings of one kind or another, at least we have men now. Their deficiencies can be compensated with tactics; we can devise better stratagems to play to our strengths and avoid our weaknesses."

"If a commander cannot play to strengths and avoid weaknesses, then he is not a fit commander. Do not complain, do not always think of asking the court for things—learn to use what you have in hand to produce the best results."