Chapter 209: Your Ma

Diwu Lun had guessed right — the one who suddenly appeared in the enemy's rear was indeed his Ma… Yuan.

To go back to yesterday morning: after Ma Yuan suddenly crossed the river to raid the City Head Zilu and discovered they were only a decoy force, he knew Diwu Lun was likely about to run into the Red Eyebrows' main strength. He immediately dispatched scouts to report, and had the local strongmen and militia of Yangping County wave flags and shout on the north bank as a decoy to pin down the City Head Zilu.

"That bandit just got raided across the river by me and lost over a thousand men — he probably won't dare try anything now."

Meanwhile, Ma Yuan took two thousand men, shed their armor, packed a day's dry rations, and began a light-armed forced march north to the rescue — kicking off his routine of saving his son-in-law.

It was deep winter. By day the sun warmed their bodies and the soldiers could still march, but once night fell travel was absolutely impossible. No matter how urgent it was, Ma Yuan had to spend the night in a village. Worried sick about Diwu Lun's safety, as he tossed and turned, a bold idea came to him.

"Why don't I cross over from the opposite bank? If the Red Eyebrow Army really is crossing the river, I can strike their rear line."

So today, at the first glimmer of dawn, he led his men across a stretch of ice that could be forded, routed the scattered Red Eyebrows guarding the river, killed them, smeared on their blood, and donned their tattered rags. After several years, he was once again moonlighting as a bandit — it came as naturally as could be. He had his soldiers adopt the bearing they'd had as refugees.

"Stride all sloppy, let your formation straggle, and don't hold your weapons properly in hand — sling them over your shoulders, or use them like walking sticks."

In short, slouch when sitting, slouch when standing. The men had all been refugees in the past and only been drilled into order over the last year. Laughing, they all played along, and many said, "Colonel Ma, it's a crying shame you never took up banditry!"

For a time they were impossible to tell from the real thing, passing smoothly all the way. The Red Eyebrows had neither unit designations nor banners anyway, relying entirely on a pair of blood-red eyebrows for identification. Just like that, Ma Yuan and his men reached the opposite bank of the battlefield. Listening to the din — what a ruckus!

Scattered Red Eyebrows and roving bandits from all over kept arriving too, all spreading word of a great Red Eyebrow victory and telling everyone to cross the river and pick over the spoils. His heart full of worry, Ma Yuan crossed with them — this was his fourth crossing of the Yellow River in two days.

Trampled by tens of thousands of feet, the once-thick ice was now riddled with cracks. If you lay flat, you could even hear the water flowing beneath and the ice layers fracturing. The men had to pick their steps carefully, and only then did they reach the north bank without mishap.

Once ashore, they discovered the Red Eyebrows were all bluster — the fighting was still going on. Ma Yuan found that his son-in-law, without him, facing five-to-one odds, had actually… still not won.

"Boyu really is only good at strategic planning. When it comes to actual fighting, he still has to rely on me." Ma Yuan smiled and had his troops seize the moment to rest and catch their breath. But when he realized Chi Zhaoping had split his forces to assault Diwu Lun's main position, he simply could not stay put.

Seeing Chi Zhaoping's chariot, the man himself wearing an exorcist mask, just a few hundred paces away, Ma Yuan made his decision on the spot and drew his blade.

"Form ranks!"

"Tie on the yellow headscarves!"

Though the two thousand men were exhausted, their legs aching as if they no longer belonged to them, they had, after all, been led by Ma Yuan for nearly a year and still obeyed.

Once they revealed their identity as the "Yellow Turban Army," they followed Ma Yuan and struck the Red Eyebrows right in the center. At the friendly troops gaping dumbstruck at them, they suddenly brandished their weapons and cut them down, catching them utterly off guard.

Over five thousand Red Eyebrow soldiers were still gathered around Chi Zhaoping. Struck by Ma Yuan's surprise attack, they flailed in chaos for a long moment.

But after all, Ma Yuan had rushed his troops here on a forced march — committing the great taboo of "the commander stumbles when a hundred-li dash is made for gain." His soldiers were exhausted and, without armor, faced Chi Zhaoping's own elite troops, who outnumbered them two to one. Though they succeeded in throwing the Red Eyebrow rear into great disorder, it did not go as Ma Yuan had hoped: he could not take Chi Zhaoping's head amid ten thousand troops and decide the battle in one stroke. The fight deadlocked.

Compared to Chi Zhaoping, who still had troops to spare to block Ma Yuan, it was Diwu Lun who was in the more perilous position!

…

This was the closest Diwu Lun had ever come to death.

When fighting Lu Fang, the two sides had merely exchanged a glance.

When crossing the Yellow River to resist the Xiongnu, though he had led the charge at the front, once on the battlefield his personal guards had held him back. He had not even had the chance to stain the sword Huan Tan gave him red with barbarian blood.

After arriving in Wei, the campaigns to levy Wu'an and drive out the Five Towers had mostly been the work of Ma Yuan and others. Diwu Lun only had to devise the plans and wait for the results.

But today was different. When a heavy blow struck his back, as if someone had punched him, though it was the dead of winter, Diwu Lun broke out in a cold sweat.

Turning his head, he saw the panicked eyes of his shield-bearing guards — and an arrow from the Red Eyebrow Army was lodged in the "basin-collared fish-scale lamellar coat" he wore.

Common soldiers fought in nothing but cloth. The better-off wore leather armor. Elite personal troops were equipped with two-panel iron lamellar coats, the front and back plates connected by straps slung over the shoulders — much like a modern vest.

As a high-ranking commander, Diwu Lun wore a finer, denser fish-scale lamellar coat. This armor was very heavy and very long, the scales extending down to the knees. Above, a basin-shaped collar guard protected the neck. With the iron helmet added, Diwu Lun was shielded almost completely, save for his face — mouth, nose, and eyes.

Although Diwu Lun found this armor too cumbersome and had better ideas in mind, he had only taken over the Wu'an Iron Workshop two months ago and had thrown himself entirely into the east, fighting two major battles in a row. New equipment would have to wait until spring.

The value of such thick protection now became starkly apparent. As five thousand Red Eyebrows circled to the rear to attack Diwu Lun, his personal troops, now only a thousand strong, clustered tightly around him, but he was still within enemy range. The Red Eyebrows lacked ranged weapons, but there were indeed a few skilled hunters on the other side who loosed several arrows at Diwu Lun in succession.

Though his personal guards blocked with their shields, it was hard to avoid the odd arrow slipping through the gaps. Had Diwu Lun not been wearing armor, he would likely have met his end right here.

"I am unharmed!"

Diwu Lun shouted at the top of his lungs: "Bandit arrows cannot pierce so much as half an inch of my armor!"

His personal guards breathed in relief and pleaded, "General, please dismount and take cover!"

Diwu Lun shook his head. "More than the bandits not seeing me, I fear our soldiers not seeing me."

Otherwise, why would he drape a great yellow cloak over his armor? Surely he wasn't really trying to moonlight as a Great Worthy Teacher?

It was solely to be conspicuous and hearten the troops!

But that, of course, also made him an easy target.

Yet Diwu Lun knew that at this moment, the battle had reached its latter half, and morale was critical. If they lost, could he really hope to survive by luck? So he had word passed: "Diwu Lun fights to the death with you all today! As long as the man stands, the drum sounds!"

With that, paying no mind to the arrow in his back, he straightened the iron helmet on his head, turned back around, and continued beating the drum!

His personal guards shielded Diwu Lun even more tightly, forming a human wall behind him. Where shields could not block, they used their own bodies! If another arrow struck the General, after the battle, Zang Nu, who had long served as Diwu Lun's personal guard, would tear them apart alive.

"The General says, 'My drumbeat will not stop!'"

Diwu Lun's action indeed heartened the soldiers who were surrounded. Most were sword-and-shield men. Following the Seventh Biao, they held their shields against the Red Eyebrows' weapons while hacking fiercely with their ring pommel swords from below. Compared to the Red Eyebrows' disorderly wave assaults, the sword-and-shield men killed with far greater efficiency through disciplined order. The only pity was that they were too few. Though they had stalled the enemy's fierce assault for the moment, they could find no chance to counterattack.

And whether far or near, every formation was locked in bitter, desperate fighting. Some units, seeing Diwu Lun surrounded by the Red Eyebrows, even began to panic — men like Peng Chong and Chai Rong's troops, and it was unclear whether they intended to come to the rescue or to flee.

The Wei troops were panicked, but the Red Eyebrows were even more panicked. They too had spotted an enemy force appearing in their rear, and some were even spreading word that Chi Zhaoping had been killed by government troops. Men kept breaking away from the fight, fleeing in every direction.

At this moment of deadlock, the ones who shattered the stalemate were people neither side had ever expected.

Not the Geng uncle and nephew, who were still at Dingtao at this moment, nor the Geng family troops who had yet to arrive.

But a crowd wearing not a single piece of armor, with no formation, carrying hoes, rake-handles, and thornwood staves — local commoners who, following the sounds of slaughter and Diwu Lun's drumbeat, had come in a steady stream from afar!

They came from the hamlets and villages around Liaocheng, several thousand strong, like streams converging into a river. Their order was even more chaotic than the Red Eyebrows', and just like that they appeared at the rear of the battlefield.

They did not even count as militia. When Diwu Lun had sent Lu Zhongkang and others to recruit and select soldiers, those too old or too young had all been rejected.

Yet now, here they all came anyway — some so old their hair was white, some so small they did not reach the height of a hoe, and even a group of sturdy women carrying sickles. The commoners stood on the ridge, watching the chaotic battlefield, their eyes filled with nothing but terror and unease.

They had all suffered bitterly from bandit chaos, living through wretched days. It was only thanks to Diwu Lun driving out the bandits that they had been able to return to their villages. Diwu Lun had restored local order, set up a new government office, distributed seeds to them, and supplied every hamlet with farming tools made by the Wu'an Iron Workshop, so that everyone could farm in peace the coming year.

To the local farmers, this was a life-saving kindness — to say nothing of the promise to halve next year's taxes, which had them elated and full of drive, determined to work hard in the spring and make up for this year's lost harvest.

But some people just would not let them live in peace!

The subordinate clerks moving through the area, acting on Diwu Lun's strategy of demonizing the Red Eyebrow Army, told everyone in no uncertain terms: "If the Red Eyebrows enter Liaocheng again, your seed grain and rations will be seized by those wretches. You will have to abandon your fields and graves, be swept up as refugees, and never return!"

Hearing that a battle had broken out here and not knowing who was winning, everyone decided to come over and see the situation. They happened to run into Feng Qin, the Accounting Clerk, who was escorting grain supplies for Diwu Lun.

Though Feng Qin was the scion of a powerful family, he knew full well that if the Red Eyebrows won, the Wei gentry were finished too. So he stirred them up with a rousing speech and brought the commoners along to lend their support.

Feng Qin, who usually kept his mouth shut and had grumbled quite a bit about Diwu Lun giving land to the refugee soldiers, had rarely shown such courage as he did today.

Dressed in civil official's robes, Feng Qin brandished a sword, spurred his horse down onto the field, and issued a call to arms: "Gentlemen, the day to repay Lord Diwu's great kindness is today!"

"Aid Lord Diwu! Drive out the bandits!"

Several thousand men raised their hoes and charged, howling, at the Red Eyebrows — whom they saw as bandits — with the same ferocity they usually reserved for fighting over water. When they got close, they swung wildly, with no discipline whatsoever.

There were also swineherds and shepherd boys who, from a distance, picked up stones, spun them rapidly in leather slings, and then hurled them hard. These were tricks for herding pigs and cattle, but when they struck the Red Eyebrows, they could still split heads and draw blood!

Although the actual damage this crowd inflicted was not great, their momentum was overwhelming. The Red Eyebrow detachment that had been besieging Diwu Lun and gnawing away for a full quarter-hour without success was already losing morale. Struck by this assault, they thought government reinforcements had arrived. Caught between two forces, they began to collapse in succession. Apart from those pinned down by the personal guards and unable to flee, the remaining two to three thousand men retreated in droves toward the great river.

Diwu Lun's drumming did not stop. He watched the scene before him with considerable astonishment. In an ordinary battle, common folk would likely have only added to the chaos. But against the Red Eyebrows, and at a moment when the two sides were locked in a stalemate, they had become the final straw that broke the enemy.

The common people of the Qin and Han were still hardy and fierce; they were not entirely weak and easy to bully. The Red Eyebrow Army on the other side had once been ordinary folk too! If, back then, a strong and capable government had organized them, why would they have feared any bandits?

Feng Qin also rode over to report: "Grand Governor, these are all local commoners who came of their own accord to help our army defeat the bandits!"

"Excellent!" Diwu Lun laughed heartily. "They are all righteous folk. I shall certainly reward them handsomely after this. Weibo, you have also rendered great merit this time!"

And as he watched the commoners come to his aid, Diwu Lun felt even greater joy than when he was supported by powerful clans or flattered by officials. He thought to himself, "It seems everything I have done is indeed correct. Heaven sympathizes with the people; what the people desire, Heaven will surely grant!"

What determines the hearts and allegiance of the common people is not their original class, but the efforts you make on behalf of their interests.

The people — the people of two commanderies — when forced to choose between the Red Eyebrows and Diwu Lun, had stood with him! This was Heaven's will decreeing his victory!

If even the Old Man in the Sky is on your side, what is there left to fear?

Diwu Lun clasped his hands toward the righteous folk who still wanted to beat the drowning dog: "The battle is chaotic, and blades and arrows are blind. To prevent casualties among you, gentlemen, you may follow far behind our army and simply capture the Red Eyebrow stragglers for me."

Diwu Lun then turned his cart around and, leading his blood-soaked personal guards, headed toward the battlefield where the situation had drastically changed. With the surprise attack on Diwu Lun ending in failure, and Chi Zhaoping being ambushed by Ma Yuan's force, the Red Eyebrows fell into great disarray. Moreover, after fighting for an entire two-hour period, they were hungry and had lost the will to fight, and began to retreat in succession.

Diwu Lun was not willing to let the enemy leave easily. He struck the drum once more and roared at the top of his lungs:

"Forward with me."

"Drive the Red Eyebrow bandits into the river!"

……

PS: There will be an extra chapter tomorrow.