Chapter 162: Sacrifice to the Banners

After enduring another day and a half at Zuoyuan, just as Gongsun Xun felt each day drag like a year, waiting in tense, heart-pounding dread for the death warrant behind him, one afternoon in mid-December, the death warrant did not arrive — instead, forward scouts came to report that a large enemy force was approaching from the southeast.

The exact numbers were hard to judge, but the vanguard alone, riding Guoxia ponies and even mules and donkeys, numbered no fewer than seven or eight thousand Goguryeo cavalry! As for the total force, it could only be estimated at anywhere from thirty to fifty thousand, perhaps even more.

Hearing this intelligence, Gongsun Xun was first stunned, then broke out in a cold sweat in the depths of winter, and finally threw his head back and laughed heartily!

Indeed, his gamble had paid off, but if he had lost his nerve earlier and charged out, he would likely have ended up dead without a burial place!

Yet thinking it over in reverse, a single thought’s difference had completely reversed the situation!

To put it plainly, though the enemy came in great numbers, only ten thousand were standing troops with combat experience and military training; the rest were mostly able-bodied men hastily mobilized. Moreover, although the weather was clear, it was still winter. The Goguryeo men were not as well-equipped as his own, had less provisions and fodder, and were now attacking his fully prepared defensive fortifications in the open field. So what if they outnumbered him five or even six to one?

You have fifty thousand, I have eight thousand. You attack, I defend. Let us see who breaks first! And when the entire Goguryeo army collapses in rout, that will naturally be the moment for our great army to strike out and sweep through the Goguryeo heartland!

In fact, when Gongsun Xun analyzed this for his subordinate officers and soldiers, everyone’s spirits were roused. Many commanders were even utterly convinced by Gongsun Xun’s earlier patience, and men like Mo Hukun could not help but flatter him, saying things like, “My lord is divinely martial and brilliantly wise, anticipating the enemy in advance”... which made Gongsun Xun quite embarrassed, so he inevitably praised Lou Zibo in turn, since the latter had, on such a critical issue, offered a plan that, while ultimately proven clumsy, was also ultimately proven effective.

For an advisor to reach this point, he could no longer be called a half-finished product; he was at least sixty or seventy percent there.

Beyond this, Gongsun Xun also took the opportunity to properly reassure the Fuyu people... Jianjuwei had clearly been deceived as well, for judging by the relationship between the Fuyu, Goguryeo, and Han peoples, this fellow was highly unlikely to be the suspected spy.

With a great enemy before them, they needed the full assistance of the Fuyu people.

And as events proved, Gongsun Xun’s timely reassurance of the Fuyu people proved exceptionally correct, because by noon the very next day, this army-wide high morale had vanished without a trace...

Even though everyone knew the score, even though everyone knew they had a sturdy fortified camp to rely on, even though everyone understood they were the side with the advantage — when the boundless Goguryeo host, bearing countless golden frog banners, clogged the broad southeastern passage at Zuoyuan, everyone still could not help but change color in unison!

“Earthen chickens...”

On the recently rebuilt high platform of the main camp, specifically designed to deal with enemies coming through the southeastern passage, Gongsun Xun could not help but force a loud laugh... Yet before he finished laughing, he felt awkward, because faced with this spectacle, he simply could not utter the words “earthen chickens and tile dogs.” Moreover, contrary to his original plan, he should have sent out the Wuhuan shock cavalry for a charge at this moment, but now he absolutely refrained from mentioning it.

This was not the same as the night raid at Lulong Fortress. That day, a few thousand men arrayed on the main road north of Lulong Fortress had looked sparse, and when night fell and everything went pitch black, nothing could be seen at all. But today, these forty to fifty thousand Goguryeo troops were in tight formation, completely sealing off the Qianshan passage before them. And looking closely, the Goguryeo host had hill cavalry riding Guoxia horses and mules on the flanks; in the front center were spearmen and sword-and-shield men wearing iron and leather armor; and row after row behind them, men clad only in drab, thick military tunics each held bows and crossbows... It was clearly quite methodical!

One could even say that under the winter midday sun, the mules, horses, spears, banners, drums, iron armor, leather armor, shields, bows, and arrows in the Goguryeo formation — though varied in kind and clearly of poor quality at a glance — still exuded a distinct sense of imposing grandeur due to their sheer mass, and as the formation advanced, it surged forward like rolling waves... In the face of such a formation, if they truly dared to march out and array for battle, those one thousand Wuhuan cavalry would likely be shot into hedgehogs by a single volley of arrows!

In fact, even Tadun, who had seen his share of battles and had previously thumped his chest volunteering to charge the enemy lines, now turned pale.

“Though the enemy’s momentum is strong, the way of attack and defense is precisely to continuously blunt their morale,” Gongsun Xun said. Seeing that no one paid attention to his “earthen chickens and tile dogs” remark, he quickly changed his wording. He also needed these one thousand Wuhuan men to help defend the main camp; it was better not to casually send them out. “As long as we stabilize the situation and hold for a few days, such an enormous enemy formation will instead become an increasing burden on them!”

The men standing on the defensive high platform watched as, behind the vast army of tens of thousands, slaves, laborers, and even female laborers began to appear like ants swarming back and forth, and they all nodded in agreement!

After all, at this moment, even a fool could see and calculate that although this Goguryeo army before them was fighting on home ground, it still represented the exhaustion of their entire national strength... In the depths of winter, if they could not take the camp beneath their feet in three to five days, they would lose seventy to eighty percent of their hope; and if they still could not take it after seven or eight days, their only option would be to retreat, and then hope that their pursuers lacked the manpower, or that their blades had been dulled during the prior defense!

However, the real problem was that you had to survive and hold out for those seven or eight days starting from this very situation!

“Immediately send a messenger to Ziheng,” Gongsun Xun, after boosting his officers’ morale, immediately turned back and quietly instructed the pale-faced Wang Xiu. “Tell him to send over all the military supplies and provisions from the Liaohe fork, and to send all the captives to Xuantu Commandery to be given as slaves to the local people on the spot. Then leave only a thousand men at the main camp there... Also, tell him not to care about face anymore; the matter is of grave importance. Have him request reinforcements from the nearest Grand Administrator Ju! And have Jianjuwei request reinforcements from the Fuyu people as well! These are the only two places that can make a difference in time now!”

Wang Xiu quickly nodded and pulled the Fuyu Juga Jianjuwei aside to speak for a moment.

“Young lord,” amidst the general gloom, it was Lou Zibo who could still grit his teeth and proactively offer counsel. “We must boost morale, otherwise these first two days will be extremely hard to endure!”

“What are your thoughts?” Gongsun Xun earnestly asked.

“That Mi Ru — drag him out and sacrifice him to your white horse banner!” Lou Gui suggested through clenched teeth.

Gongsun Xun looked up at the red-backed white horse banner above his head and nodded decisively. Seeing this, Lou Zibo immediately went down to fetch the man.

But just as everyone was waiting for Mi Ru to be brought up, the situation before them changed again... The Goguryeo formation halted before the camp, and then the banners and soldiers on the flanks parted, and out rode a small old man on horseback, who carefully scrutinized the Zuoyuan camp, which was clearly well-prepared.

And with this man’s appearance, the two armies, each holding their ground, gradually fell silent.

“What an imposing presence — could this be Minglin Physician?” Mo Hukun sneered.

“Behind him is a gold-fringed frog banner, which seems to be the symbol of the Goguryeo Mangniji,” Xu Rong said beside him, frowning. “Then this man should be the Goguryeo regent, Minglin Physician...”

“Can Yigong reach him?” Gongsun Xun immediately turned his head and asked his trusted aide beside him.

Han Dang naturally understood his lord’s meaning, but after gauging the distance, he shook his head: “Too far!”

“Then forget it,” Gongsun Xun could not help but shake his head. “To kill him with one arrow would be excellent, but if we miss, not only will we become a laughingstock, it will also boost the enemy’s morale... What is he doing?!”

It turned out that just as the Han officers on their elevated position were discussing Minglin Physician, the Goguryeo Mangniji had also suddenly turned and spoken a few words to the men beside him, and then a squad of oddly outfitted Goguryeo soldiers emerged from his side... They were odd because these armored soldiers were all cavalry riding oxen, and the oxen were all harnessed with wooden yokes...

“Are they going to plow the fields?” Lou Zibo, who had just brought Mi Ru up, could not help but ask curiously. “Or is this some Goguryeo pre-battle custom?”

“This is a pre-battle execution!” Jianjuwei, the Fuyu Juga who had finished his discussion with Wang Xiu, suddenly spoke up to explain. “And it is the punishment of being torn apart by oxen. I have heard that the Han people have a similar punishment, but using carts and horses...”

“Torn apart by carts!”

“Dismembered by five horses!”

“Who are they dismembering?”

Everyone suddenly understood, but then became puzzled.

“Several of our scouts did not return earlier,” someone immediately thought of a possibility.

“If it really is our men, then when the moment comes, we’ll unleash a volley of arrows,” Tadun immediately suggested. The scouts were his Wuhuan subordinates. “First, to free our brothers, and second, to kill these executioner Goguryeo men along with them... They’re all armored soldiers, likely Minglin Physician’s personal guards. Killing them would be no loss!”

Gongsun Xun immediately nodded in agreement, and Gongsun Yue beside him quickly signaled the archers at the first palisade ahead.

“General, it is not so,” Jianjuwei beside him hurriedly explained again. “According to the customs of us Fuyu and the Goguryeo people, only nobles of our own race are subjected to this punishment, and here they are using a full fifteen oxen... It must be a Goguryeo noble of extraordinary rank!”

“They’re going to kill one of their own?” Duan Riyuming was immediately speechless. “Killing their own man before the two armies... what use is that?!”

Gongsun Xun also frowned and remained silent. Just then, he suddenly felt someone tugging at his side. Turning his head, he saw it was none other than Lou Zibo.

“What is it?” Gongsun Xun was momentarily puzzled.

Lou Gui pointed to a corner of the high platform, still saying nothing.

Gongsun Xun followed his indication and suddenly understood... It turned out that the former defender of Zuoyuan — the suspected spy’s own younger brother, Mi Ru — who had been gagged and bound hand and foot, was now being held by soldiers, kneeling rigidly on the platform, staring wide-eyed at the ox team ahead in utter terror.

“The suspected spy is to be sacrificed to the banners,” Lou Gui stroked his beard and explained to the crowd. “Since the ambush has failed, the easy loss of such a strategic location as Zuoyuan must be accounted for to the entire Goguryeo hierarchy. In this situation, is not the suspected spy, whose own younger brother was the commander of Zuoyuan, the perfect scapegoat?”

In fact, no further explanation was needed, because soon Gongsun Xun and the others witnessed with their own eyes the pot-bellied suspected spy, with whom they had once feasted in the same hall, being led out from the formation like livestock and brought before the battle lines. Then, this dignified chieftain of the Gwanna-bu, one of the five tribes of Goguryeo, was publicly stripped of his clothes and bound with ropes.

The Han army and the Goguryeo army alike fell silent for a moment, all coldly watching the scene.

“Un-gag him!” Gongsun Xun, who had been watching the activity before the camp gate, suddenly gave the order.

The men paused for a moment, then realized their general was referring to Mi Ru, who was emotionally agitated, his body constantly heaving, yet unable to make a sound. They hurriedly complied.

“Elder brother!” The moment he could speak, Mi Ru shouted frantically toward the front, his voice piercingly sharp in the silence between the two armies where no one dared make a sound. “Say something! Tell the Mangniji and our countrymen that you are not a traitor!”

The suspected spy, pinned to the ground and in the process of having his limbs bound, glanced over this way with a vacant expression. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but it was full of blood... His tongue had clearly been cut out beforehand!

Mi Ru immediately burst into heart-wrenching wails!

Across the way, Minglin Physician, seeing the sudden appearance of this troublemaker Mi Ru, also grew somewhat tense and impatient. Taking advantage of the ongoing binding at the front, he immediately turned around and had a loud-voiced rider explain something loudly in the Goguryeo language, or Fuyu speech, to the Goguryeo officers and soldiers behind him.

Even without Jian Juyi translating, those present could probably guess the gist — it was nothing more than saying that Yaya Keli and the Guanna tribe were both traitors who had sold out their country, that they were the ones who had meekly handed over Zuoyuan to the Han people; and now, how wise and mighty Molizhi Minglin Physician was, how he had seen through the Guanna tribe's conspiracy, and how today he would carry out righteous public punishment, how he would be clear in reward and punishment — first executing the national traitors, then retaking Zuoyuan!

"That's not how it was!" Miru had been wailing and sobbing without pause, but upon hearing these words he truly could not bear it any longer, and kneeling on the platform he shouted back loudly. "Clearly it was Molizhi who said he was dying, that his two sons were useless, and that he was preparing to pass his position to our Guanna tribe or the Huanna tribe, telling the two tribes to vie for the position through merit... Ceding Zuoyuan was Minglin Physician's order, and my garrison commander was personally appointed by him!"

"My elder brother is no national traitor!"

"Our Guanna tribe did not betray the country!"

"Molizhi's handling of this matter is unjust!"

All manner of shrill, desperate rebuttals and questions — at first they were only in the Goguryeo tongue, and the crowd could not make them out clearly, but later, as the people on the opposite side switched to Han speech, he too switched to Han speech... Truly, every Han army officer who heard this looked at one another in astonishment.

Yet, no matter how Miru cried and wailed, the execution below the platform showed not the slightest sign of stopping.

With the sound of a strange musical instrument, Yaya Keli, whose four limbs and head were all tightly bound by ropes, was suddenly yanked upright into the air by fifteen oxen.

Miru ceased his protests, letting out only a single wail of grief, and then began cursing Minglin Physician opposite him in a jumble of languages... But after Yaya Keli's body was forcibly stretched into a grotesque posture, he turned instead and kowtowed repeatedly toward Gongsun Xun.

With a long sigh, Gongsun Xun finally gave a slight nod. Immediately, the Han archers at the front palisade loosed their arrows... But before the arrowheads landed, Yaya Keli burst apart with a bang, splitting into several pieces like an exploding mushroom!

The arrowheads fell, merely pinning a few oxen and several Goguryeo soldiers to death.

But with this volley of arrows, on both sides of the blood-misted clearing, the two armies alike stood in awe, and in unison gripped their weapons.

——————I am the exploding dividing line——————

"Yaya Keli was a noble of the Guanna tribe, one of the five tribes of Goguryeo. He had long studied Han texts, understood Han culture, and was versed in historical allusions. During the Guanghe era of the Later Han, as Goguryeo's Molizhi Minglin Physician grew old and power within the realm was shifting, Keli, imitating the Han 'Scheme of Mayi,' proposed using Zuoyuan to lure the Han army into a trap, in order to seek power and position. He personally donned a Liang-style cap and Confucian robes to travel and lobby in Han territory. The Grand Ancestor led troops from Liaodong and Xuantu to march out to Zuoyuan; the Grand Ancestor discerned the scheme before the battle, annexed the land but did not enter... Goguryeo thereupon fell into great terror, raised troops for a counterattack, and used fifteen oxen to tear Keli's body apart before the battle lines as a pre-battle sacrifice. Alas! This man Keli devised the scheme at Zuoyuan, intending to swallow Liaodong; yet ended up torn apart and dead before the battle lines, trampled by ten thousand soldiers, becoming the laughingstock of the world — is that not fitting?" — Dianlüe, annotated by Pei Songzhi of Yan

PS: My parents are arriving by high-speed rail today... there's no helping it, everyone please understand.

Also, the new book group is 684558115, everyone can join.

(End of chapter)