Chapter 695: The Battle of Liyang

Dawn broke, though without the crowing of roosters. The faint light was still gentle, but Cen River Village was shrouded in desolation and murderous chill. Originally, this was a village of over forty households—not a small settlement—but with the arrival of war, its former peace and harmony had been shattered to pieces.

Half the people had fled before the Chu army came north; the rest were slaughtered outright. Grain, wealth, goods, and livestock were stripped clean. Under Zhou Xingfeng's deliberate indulgence, the troops under his command grew increasingly bandit-like in nature.

As for this Chu army unit sent to garrison Cen River Village, it numbered over three thousand, was weak in combat strength, and was nothing more than a motley rabble. Thus, when Li Yun led his army south and saw the enemy camp that followed the village's layout, its stockade not even firmly set up, he nearly couldn't restrain himself from ordering an immediate attack.

However, he suppressed the urge to attack, ordered the entire army to rest in place, and without building extensive fortifications, merely formed ranks and camped for the night, watching the Chu army at Cen River Village with hungry eyes.

At the same time, to prevent them from fleeing or retreating, Li Yun also dispersed the three hundred cavalry he had obtained from Shi Yanchao to serve as sentinels. Practice would prove that Li Yun had made thorough preparations for this battle.

The defending commander at Cen River, when the Han army drew near, decisively sent men south to request reinforcements—but they simply couldn't get through. The three exits were all sealed off, and several waves of messengers were wiped out to the last man. They simply couldn't get through.

The Chu general leading the troops was also someone who sensed danger. Taking advantage of the deep night, he directly led his men, hoping to flee to Liyang under the cover of darkness. However, Li Yun had anticipated this as well, having prepared in advance fifteen hundred well-rested soldiers. Detecting the enemy's movement, they struck with a crushing blow and drove them back.

The combat effectiveness of this Chu force was vastly inferior to the Han army under Li Yun. Had it not been for the inconvenience of night fighting, he would have stormed the village stockade that very night and annihilated them.

Of course, having dragged things out for a night, with more rest and fuller preparations, dawn announced the doom of this Chu force at Cen River.

By the time the morning sun climbed high, war drums thundered, and killing cries shook the village fields. Under Li Yun's command, in no more than a single shichen, Cen River Village was taken, including the mopping up of remaining enemies.

Though this was an assault-defense battle of extremely low intensity—after the Han army broke through the crude earthen-and-stone stockade with only feeble resistance—it became a matter of accepting the Chu army's organized surrender. Because the villagers had been almost entirely slaughtered, these Chu soldiers had no chance to fish in troubled waters, no place to hide, and were eliminated one by one.

As he walked along the broken village dirt road under the escort of his soldiers, the temperature was just beginning to turn hot. Though the actual battle results were not exactly glorious, for Li Yun, they were still gratifying. At least in the military report, he could confidently write: enemy annihilated, three thousand. On this southern campaign, General Li had secured a guaranteed share of merit.

"General, we could tell from last night that these rebel troops couldn't withstand a single blow! Preliminary count: our army lost 32 dead and 97 wounded, and the enemy force was completely annihilated here!" A junior officer walked beside Li Yun, reporting to him with a look of not being fully satisfied: "If all the rebel troops were this useless, in this subordinate's view, we alone could sweep all of Hunan clean!"

"A mere minor victory—defeating such decrepit, weak soldiers—and you lot become this arrogant?" Li Yun kept a stern face and rebuked him. It wasn't that he was being modest; it was simply that he too was unsatisfied in his heart.

"The General's lesson is well taken!" Rebuked, the officer didn't mind, admitting his fault readily, a hint of contempt in his smiling expression: "It's just that these rebel troops are too destitute—they have almost no valuables, their armor and weapons are in tatters, and we found less than a hundred dan of grain..."

For the officers, military merit and plunder were what they wanted to gain in equal measure, but clearly, the harvest at Cen River Village was so meager it was hard to look at.

"At this rate! These prisoners will probably end up costing us our own grain to feed!" the officer muttered.

Li Yun heard this and took it to heart, saying: "If that's the case, then before long, the rebel troops here will run out of food!"

"Of course!" The officer nodded affirmatively, saying: "With less than a hundred dan of grain, even eating sparingly, over three thousand men can't hold out for more than a few days! Before our army arrived, they had already sent out several hundred-man squads to forage in the surrounding villages and mountain forests—but I reckon they won't dare come back. Either they'll scatter and flee, or they'll turn to banditry!"

Hearing this, Li Yun broke into a smile and said: "This is good news. If the rebel troops here are short on food, the enemy at Liyang can hardly be any better off. Commander-in-Chief Murong is truly formidable—he saw the enemy's vital weakness at a glance. No wonder he proposed that strategy. Lacking provisions, what can these rebel troops fight with? And they still dare to take the initiative to strike north—truly desperate fools who don't know their own doom!"

"General, let's hurry south! This battle was too easy—the brothers haven't even warmed up." Seeing this, the officer's face immediately showed eagerness.

"Pass the order: have the prisoners dig a pit outside the village!" Li Yun instructed.

"Does the General intend to bury these troublesome prisoners alive?" the officer asked shrewdly.

"I'd like to keep my head, thank you!" Seeing him being clever, Li Yun shot him a glare and said: "Bury all the corpses in the village, fertilize the land here. Summer has arrived—if these bodies aren't dealt with and an epidemic breaks out, that would be bad!"

"Also, among the surrendered rebel troops, kill all those above the rank of centurion! Then drive the surrendered troops south!" After thinking a moment, Li Yun added: "Actually, no—leave two hundred soldiers and a batch of prisoners here to handle things. The rest of the men, after a brief rest, will advance south immediately!"

"I figure that once Shi Yanchao's troops arrive, the situation for the rebel troops at Liyang will surely turn dire. That pot of stew—I must go claim a share!" Li Yun said with spirited vigor.

"Yes! This subordinate will make the arrangements at once!"

Throughout their conversation, neither mentioned the villagers slaughtered at Cen River, nor paid any mind to the few scattered Chu foraging parties. During wartime, to these soldiers, the lives of common folk didn't count as lives at all—especially not "Chu commoners."

After a flurry of preparations, the Han army under Li Yun's command formed up, driving over two thousand surrendered troops before them, and marched with great fanfare south toward Liyang. The distance was barely over thirty li, and they didn't rush—taking three shichen, they arrived at Liyang around the hour of bu.

With Li Yun's army arriving, the combined three Han forces no longer had such a vast numerical disparity with Yang Shifan's army. As for morale, fighting spirit, and combat capability, the two sides were even less comparable. In light of this, Yang Shifan had no choice but to pull his entire army tight within the camp, reinforce the stockade and fortifications, and put on a show of defending to the death.

As for Li Yun, Shi Yanchao, and Pan Mei, they met outside the walls of Liyang to exchange information, learning that Yang Shifan's army was at the end of its rope—its complete collapse was a matter of two or three days.

The three conferred together. Pan Mei suggested that they should threaten from without, besiege without attacking, and simply watch the enemy collapse and surrender on its own, resolving this enemy force at minimal cost. After reaching consensus, Li and Shi's two armies joined forces and camped outside, resting and awaiting the opportunity, while Shi Yanchao continued dispatching cavalry to patrol along the Li River to prevent the enemy from swimming south to escape. Pan Mei, meanwhile, returned to the city to prepare for a sortie.

However, after Pan Mei left, Li Yun began to harbor his own schemes. He went to Shi Yanchao and said directly: "We two are veteran generals of the battlefield—how can we listen to that young whelp Pan Mei!"

Noting the strange look on Li Yun's old face, Shi Yanchao furrowed his brow slightly and said: "What does the General mean? Surely you don't intend to go your own way? We three just made an agreement!"

Li Yun shook his head, saying with considerable confidence: "That's not what I mean! Pan Mei's analysis is quite sound. It's just that if these fourteen thousand-plus enemy troops surrender directly without a fight, that battle merit won't be solid!"

"I already have the merit of breaking an enemy force at Cen River Village. General Shi, on the other hand, came south this time and seems to have yet to achieve any battle accomplishments..." Li Yun put on an air of considering Shi Yanchao's interests.

In truth, at the military rank of Li Yun and Shi Yanchao, when the court deliberated merit, it always comprehensively weighed their roles and functions—never solely on the basis of combat kills. It was simply that the two of them had a hard time restraining their killing intent.

Shi Yanchao thought it over briefly, then asked: "What do you plan to do?"

"The moment the rebel troops can't hold out—before they collapse and surrender—we launch our attack immediately, fight a good round, then take prisoners. If we can defeat them quickly, it's the same merit, but the two of us take it rather than splitting it three ways—better, no?" Li Yun said with a smile.

The two quickly reached a consensus.

Pan Mei had predicted the Chu army could hold out for another three to five days, but the deterioration of their situation far exceeded his imagination—and there was also the worry of internal unrest. After the Han army came south, the Yao chieftain Qin Zaixiong had grown increasingly disobedient to orders.

That night, soldiers in the Chu camp climbed over the stockade, wanting to surrender. Yang Shifan ordered them killed, but the killings couldn't stop them—over three hundred soldiers fled to the Han camp in a single night, giving the Han army even better knowledge of the enemy's true situation.

The next day, the number of deserters doubled.

The following day, Li Yun and Shi Yanchao joined forces to launch a surprise assault on the Chu camp. They broke it in a single battle, achieving victory in the Battle of Liyang.