Chapter 75: Withdrawing the Settlement (Part 2)

"Gongsun Sima." That Yanmen Commandery Military Clerk Zhang Ze suddenly came running over again. "The Qu Army Marquis over by Linwo requests your presence, saying he wants to discuss how to divide those livestock and weapons between the two commanderies…"

"Hold there." Gongsun Xun raised his head expressionlessly. "What do you mean, divide? Once we reach Yanmen, shouldn't these things be returned?"

Zhang Ze gave a dry laugh and made no reply.

Gongsun Xun lowered his head with a cold sneer, then abruptly drew the blade from his waist and offered it to the other man, hilt-first: "I won't go then. I ask Lord Zhang to go speak for me — this blade for their Wuyuan, everything else for me. How about that?"

Zhang Ze gave another dry laugh, then hurriedly bowed in salute. Not daring to take the blade, he quickly ran back, and with several grim-faced commandery clerks in tow, earnestly pulled the Linwo Qu Army Marquis aside and said something at length… presumably explaining just how solid Gongsun Xun's backing was, how stubborn the man was, and then asking the other party to give so-and-so and so-and-so some face, and how things could be handled later, and so on.

In any case, after Zhang Ze had explained himself into a full sweat, that Qu Army Marquis still did not dare take a single head of livestock and finally left cursing under his breath.

Next, the company began the first river crossing of the return journey. The cattle, sheep, horses, blades, swords, bows, and arrows — all the confiscated supplies — were ferried to the opposite bank first, and only then the people.

And just after crossing the river, those several prominent households who had not been offended at all earlier jointly sent a middle-aged man surnamed Lu, along with a dozen or so rather robust sons and retainers, to come pay their respects. Whether it was a show of strength or something else was unclear, but in any case they said they did not intend to go to Yanmen, but rather to Taiyuan to seek refuge with relatives and friends… and then, after thanking Gongsun Xun and this Military Clerk Zhang for the escort, they declared they would part ways here and travel on alone.

Gongsun Xun was thoroughly vexed and could not be bothered with them; he simply waved his hand repeatedly and let those households go.

And so, the company pressed on day and night along the southern bank inside the great bend of the Yellow River, until at last they reached the river's edge once more, ready to cross again. And this time, the opposite bank was unmistakably the territory of Wuzhou County, Yanmen Commandery.

At this point, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Even Gongsun Xun felt somewhat unburdened. He had already decided: the moment they crossed the river, he would immediately return those livestock, which had already begun to lose condition. The misery of being loathed day in and day out by over a thousand people, young and old alike, was truly unbearable!

Yet that very night, trouble suddenly broke out!

"Young Lord!" In the latter half of the night, Han Dang suddenly threw open the tent flap and entered with two armored soldiers, shaking his Sima awake. "Arm yourself at once — there's going to be trouble!"

After the battle at Liucheng, Gongsun Xun had gained a fair measure of experience. Waking to these words, he was not overly flustered.

"You two — one bring Adjutant Lu here, the other go to the commandery clerks' tents and order them not to leave their quarters." After rising, Gongsun Xun first pointed at the two armored soldiers and gave his orders, then, while donning his armor with Han Dang's help, began asking about the situation. "Is there unrest among the migrants?"

"Hard to say." Han Dang said gravely. "Just now, the night-watch attendant-slaves reported that there seemed to be people spying from behind the hills to the south. Brother Demou had me go take a look, and indeed something was amiss. As for the migrants — their camp is very quiet at the moment. Yet if someone is scouting us now, what else could they be after but these Wuyuan migrants?"

Gongsun Xun nodded. "That stands to reason… Have Demou lead the attendant-slaves to hold the camp. You summon the armored soldiers and prepare to reinforce at any moment!"

"Aye!"

Fully prepared, Gongsun Xun walked unhurriedly out of the tent with his hand on his blade, only to find that, aside from Cheng Pu, who had to remain in control of the main camp, the rest of the armored soldiers had already assembled under Han Dang's command. Even Lu Fan had thrown on a suit of iron armor and come running nervously with his two guards.

"Don't cluster here." Gongsun Xun looked at the pitch-black night around him and listened to the stirring sounds gradually rising from the encircled migrant camp, then made a swift decision and changed his plan at once. "To the livestock pens! Guard the horses and the cattle and sheep!"

The men roared their assent. With halberds in hand and bows slung, their iron armor clanking, they went straight to where the horses, cattle, and sheep were kept.

"What do we do now?" Lu Ziheng, after all, was facing such a scene for the first time and could not help being nervous.

"We need do nothing." Gongsun Xun said dismissively. "Whoever they are and whatever they came for, the fact that they waited until dark to approach means their numbers must be small — they want to stir chaos and profit from the disorder. Our side holds the advantage in strength, but we are unfamiliar with the terrain and it's unwise to pursue into the night. That being the case, we hold the camp and guard the horses, and they will naturally have no move left to make."

Lu Fan and Han Dang both nodded in agreement.

"Right!" Gongsun Xun suddenly thought of something else. "Put out all unnecessary lights. Leave a few braziers, but set them all on the ground, and keep no one near them — lest someone use them to…"

Before the words were finished, an arrow suddenly shot out of the darkness. Its force was fierce, and it directly knocked over a brazier set in front of the livestock pens, scattering burning charcoal across the ground!

In an instant, several cattle and sheep inside the pens panicked and recoiled, and armored soldiers of private-retainer background, like Jia Chao, immediately closed in tight around Gongsun Xun.

Han Dang flew into a rage. Drawing his bow, he loosed an arrow straight back toward the source of the shot. But the night was too dark; after the arrow flew out, only a few cold laughs drifted over from the distant hills.

Seeing this, Han Dang grew even more unable to bear it and made to charge out with his bow.

"Don't go!" Gongsun Xun had in truth been startled by the power and accuracy of that arrow, but he forced himself to remain calm and reined Han Dang in. "For the other side to shoot so divinely yet only strike the brazier — clearly they have misgivings and dare not kill. Take this chance to quickly douse the fires as I just ordered, lest we remain lit while the enemy hides in darkness and they grow bold enough to kill!"

Hearing this order, Han Dang immediately suppressed his fury and led seven or eight armored soldiers to spread out and extinguish torches or lower braziers to the ground. Still, at his signal, several armored soldiers remained tightly clustered around Gongsun Xun.

A short while later, as the lights dimmed and the commander remained composed, calm was eventually restored on this side. Cheng Pu's side likewise followed the same orders at once — the attendant-slaves reduced the lighting as instructed, took cover in the shadows, and ordered all the migrant households not to leave their tents…

Once these countermeasures were in place, the other side indeed grew frustrated and made no move for quite some time. After a while, from behind the nearby hills, the sounds of mocking laughter and curses drifted over on the wind — a desperate taunting tactic forced upon them by their helplessness…

Han Dang tried three times to charge out, but each time Lu Fan and Gongsun Xun stopped him.

Thus the two sides remained locked in stalemate until the fourth watch, when someone actually crept over the ridge of the small hill in the dark and came close, shouting abuse: "Do the government troops of Yanmen know nothing but to douse their lights and take a scolding?"

Hearing these words in the darkness, Gongsun Xun and Lu Fan, whose eyes had long since adjusted to the dim light, could not help exchanging amused glances — and then both set their minds at ease!

In truth, this display from the other side revealed far too much:

First, such impatient agitation clearly showed they had reached the end of their rope, which meant Gongsun Xun's response had been appropriate, and under these measures the other side was utterly powerless;

Second, the man's accent was extremely similar to that of the migrants in the camp — unmistakably Wuyuan — which meant these were no bandits after wealth, but merely people trying to spirit away some fellow villagers before the river crossing. That being the case, they would hardly dare create large-scale chaos for fear of harming their own people;

Third, this man had come far too close!

"Spineless rats!" Another shout of abuse rang out, its direction even clearer. "If you've got the guts…"

"Wei Yue, get back here!" A voice full of alarm and fury suddenly came from the ridge. "With that voice of yours, I could shoot your head off if I wanted to!"

"What?" This man surnamed Wei from Wuyuan did not catch the meaning at first.

"Aim for the legs!"

At that moment, Gongsun Xun suddenly gave the order, and Han Dang along with seven or eight armored soldiers scattered in the darkness loosed their arrows in unison!

In that instant, in the black of night, Gongsun Xun heard in succession: the howl of the north wind over the distant ridge, the cries of alarm and fury from behind the hill, the clanking of armored soldiers charging out, the sound of hoofbeats fleeing, the sounds of struggling from where the cursing had come… and of course, the sound of the Yellow River flowing to the east remained utterly unchanged from start to finish.

"Young Lord." Han Dang came to report with a cold sneer. "This scoundrel was surprisingly agile. Seven or eight arrows shot at him, yet he twisted and turned so that only one hit — and even that just pinned his leather robe. If the men behind him had dared come to his aid, he might well have escaped!"

Gongsun Xun was about to speak when he heard, from somewhere between the migrant camp and the livestock pens behind him, the sudden sounds of scuffling and struggling.

Then Cheng Pu sent word: they had also captured a man over there.

"In former times, when the Great Ancestor was in the army, he led a dozen-odd soldiers escorting over a thousand migrants across the Yellow River. Bandits, knowing his force was small, spied on the camp by night. The Great Ancestor sat before his tent, directing operations with perfect composure. The bandit chief raised his bow and aimed at him, but beholding his bearing, could not bear to kill, and instead shot away the camp-gate brazier before departing. Such was the regard he commanded in men's hearts." — The Old Book of Yan, Annals of the Martial Emperor, Great Ancestor

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(End of Chapter)