Chapter 270: Their Blood Was Dark and Yellow

"Master Jing, this is Shangyan Mountain — the locals also call it Iron Sickle Mountain."

Although Jing Dan was a native of Shiwei Commandery, his home was in Yueyang County, still some distance from here, so he had only heard the name and never visited in person.

Seeing it today, the mountain was indeed utterly unremarkable — just the typical loess tableland common north of the Wei River, forty-some zhang high at most, running northeast by east with its western section turning southwest. It broke off eastward at the Yellow River and ended at the Jinshui Gully, cut westward by the Luo River and halted at West Slope Head — truly resembling the sickle Diwu Lun had jokingly called a "people's axe," lying across the plain and the highland.

Jing Dan stood on the summit gazing west: the Luo River flowed slowly, and he could even make out troops marching across the pontoon bridge in a steady line. Looking southeast, the wheat of Hexi had already been harvested, the millet was nearly ripe, and Linjin, the largest city of Shiwei, stood out plainly.

Diwu Lun's camp of twenty thousand troops lay right between the two.

"If Tian Kuang truly left a suicide squad here, and they burst out when the two armies clash — with our army's order, it would surely be thrown into chaos." Like Diwu Lun, Jing Dan had broken out in a cold sweat. He had been ordered to bring three or four thousand men here to investigate, with the local strongman Li Bo, who had reported the matter, serving as guide.

Shangyan Mountain was already covered with soldiers, and the spot they clustered around was a well-mouth of unfathomable depth.

"So you're saying Tian Kuang's suicide soldiers are hidden down this well?"

This was the first task Zhang Yu had received after escorting Diwu Ba out of the city and earning promotion to Company Commander — and such a huge blunder had occurred. Wronged and unwilling to accept it, he thought: they truly had not checked down this well during their search — who would have imagined the enemy was right under their feet?

Although Shangyan Mountain had many strange well-shafts, with wooden ladders at the rims for climbing up and down — kick a stone down and it took ages to hear the sound — how many men could one well hide?

"Little Company Commander." Li Bo smiled. "This is no ordinary well — it's a well-canal."

He explained the origin: "In the time of Emperor Wu of Han, they built great canals here, intending to draw the Luo River to irrigate over ten thousand qing of alkaline land around Chongquan, Dali, and Linjin."

"But the canal was blocked by Shangyan Mountain and could not pass. Ordinary open-cut methods wouldn't work either — the mountain is over forty zhang high, all covered in loess, and digging a deep open channel would easily collapse. So the craftsmen switched to the well-canal method."

This so-called well-canal, put simply, was to dig a tunnel straight through this section of Shangyan Mountain and let the water flow through the mountain! It was a thing unheard of since ancient times, and had it not met with Emperor Wu of Han — an emperor of great daring who delighted in novelties — it would likely have been impossible to carry out.

After digging began, difficulties arose: if they only worked from both ends toward the middle, the darkness made work impossible and even suffocated many laborers to death. So they sank vertical shafts at intervals along the canal line for ventilation and light.

"Below the wells is actually a covered conduit, supported by cypress timbers, connected throughout to carry water."

Because a huge "dragon-head bone" was discovered during excavation, it was taken as an auspicious omen, and the canal was named the Dragon Head Canal.

As a result, the Dragon Head Canal had become a perfect troop-hiding tunnel. In Diwu Lun's words: "Tian Kuang knows tunnel warfare?"

The north and south entrances of the covered canal on Shangyan Mountain were also heavily guarded by troops Diwu Lun had dispatched. Jing Dan sent men in to probe. At first, none returned; after a while, blood-tinged water flowed out. After sending in another wave, sounds of combat came from within, and soldiers scrambled out in disarray, saying there were indeed enemies inside, but the covered canal was narrow — the water channel allowed only a few men to stand abreast — so they could not tell the numbers, though the enemy's armor and weapons were indeed excellent.

Fortunately, these suicide soldiers had been spotted by a shepherd boy from Li Bo's household when they infiltrated the Dragon Head Canal, and the report was made in time — otherwise the consequences would have been unthinkable.

"How long is this section of well-canal?"

"Over ten li."

"How many well-mouths on the tableland?"

"One every half-li, twenty-some in all."

Jing Dan frowned in thought. At that moment, Zhang Yu proposed a vicious idea: "Since they're wells, we can fill them. Just seal both ends, then dump earth down from the wells — we can bury them alive, guaranteed they won't get out! That way, without spending a single soldier, we can make the enemy perish."

"No!" The moment the words left his mouth, Jing Dan and Li Bo objected in unison.

Jing Dan knew he was newly arrived, the troops did not yet know him, and the soldiers still heeded Zheng Tong, who had led them for some time — his opinion mattered greatly. So rather than issue a direct order, he asked Zhang Yu in return: "To block up ten li of well-canal — how long would that take?"

Zhang Yu said, "We have three or four thousand men; conscript some local natives and we'll have enough hands. It would only take three or four days."

Jing Dan said, "And how long did it take to dig this well-canal?"

"Three or four years?"

Jing Dan gestured for Li Bo to speak. Li Bo had just been terrified by Zhang Yu's idea, and seeing that Jing Dan also disagreed, he was somewhat relieved. He said, "Emperor Wu of Han conscripted over ten thousand soldiers and civilians, and it took ten years to complete! Because the irrigation effect fell short of expectations, it was expanded and repaired again in the time of Emperors Zhao and Xuan — altogether tens of thousands of laborers, taking thirty or forty years."

The people of Hexi had truly used the spirit of the Foolish Old Man Who Moved Mountains, year after year chipping at stone and digging earth, bit by bit, to create this miracle that pierced through mountain and tableland.

This was also why Jing Dan could not agree to simply fill it in with earth for the sake of a few hundred enemy troops. He pointed at the covered canal's outlet, where clear water flowed out, carried by open channels to irrigate the entire plain. The millet ears were already weighing the stalks into a slight bow — a bountiful harvest was clearly imminent.

"The essence of the Hexi region lies in these ten thousand qing of fine fields irrigated by the Dragon Head Canal. On this depend the food and clothing of a hundred thousand common people."

Jing Dan invoked Diwu Lun: "When I set out, His Excellency exhorted me a thousand, ten thousand times: the enemy must be wiped out, but the Dragon Head Canal must absolutely be protected. If this canal is destroyed, leaving ten thousand qing of good fields without water — Tian Kuang would be a sinner against Hexi, and he, too, would be a sinner!"

These words moved Li Bo deeply. It seemed Diwu Lun truly lived up to his title of "Grand General Who Pacifies the People" — he was not driven by short-term gain. He, Li Bo, had not pledged himself to the wrong man.

That being the case, after peering down at the well-mouths on the mountain for a while, Zhang Yu came up with another plan: "No need to fill them — better to smoke them out, like plugging a rat hole at home!"

He had even worked out the method: "Seal the north entrance, leaving only a spot to light a fire and make smoke. The canal flows north to south, and the air current inside the covered canal does the same. Toss plenty of kindling down the well-mouths too — in less than half a shichen, the enemy will be choking unbearably and will surely flee south in panic, right into our army's grasp!"

It sounded good, but Li Bo warned: "The covered canal collapses easily, so it's heavily shored up with cypress timbers inside. If a fire breaks out and burns them, causing the covered canal to collapse, it would be no different from filling it in. At most, we can only seal the north entrance and drive smoke in from there."

But the covered canal was ten li long, and smoke is light — it would rise up through every well it encountered, greatly reducing the effect.

Zhang Yu grew angry at once: "This won't do, that won't do — this covered canal of yours is truly precious!"

Li Bo's opinion was that they should simply trap the enemy inside, wait seven or eight days until their food ran out, then wipe them out at leisure.

Jing Dan shook his head. No one knew whether there were five hundred men inside or a thousand. The time left to Diwu Lun was short — they did not have seven or eight days to let the army idle here.

"Since there's no trick to be had, we'll fight by force! Master Jing, let me take troops inside."

Colonel Zheng Tong, who had been silent all along, now volunteered: "How does that saying go? When meeting on a narrow path… the brave win! Tian Kuang has several hundred suicide soldiers who can lurk in this covered canal for days, eating dry rations and drinking canal water — are all the men under Lord Diwu cowards?"

Ten days ago, Zheng Tong had been repulsed attacking Yao Pass, losing several hundred men. On this campaign to Hexi, he had been holding in a bellyful of frustration. Though he could not command independently, when it came to fearing death — who could match him? Back when Diwu Lun struck the allied forces at Xin Qinzhong and made the suffering Boar-Rush Braves take blades to kill the cruel clerks, he had been the first to act. When the Xiongnu invaded and at the River Canal Battle, he had charged at the very front and taken the most heads. Later, on Diwu Lun's orders, he had gone to the Western Sea to find Diba Jiao, and at the Linqu Township uprising, he had not fallen behind either.

He had to prove that, though the troops allotted to him were lousy, he himself was not!

Back in the Boar-Rush Braves, Zheng Tong had once been stabbed by a cruel clerk through carelessness. He, too, took pleasure in stabbing people — but with a blade. Wasn't it just stabbing through the Dragon Head Canal? What was so hard about that!

Jing Dan was overjoyed, understanding now why Diwu Lun had sent Zheng Tong. He promised that every soldier who followed him in would receive one bolt of silk and one gold cake.

"Who is willing to follow me inside?"

Some were cowardly, some shrank back, some craved the reward, and some, stirred by Zheng Tong's example — knowing shame is akin to courage — stepped forward resolutely!

While Zheng Tong picked his brave men, Zhang Yu used his own method, making smoke at the north entrance of the well-canal. Because too many well-mouths leaked air, the effect was indeed mediocre, and only a scant few of Tian Kuang's suicide soldiers ran out. Clever and having picked up a bit of Diwu Lun's sinister cunning, he said, "This is canal water anyway, used for irrigating fields, not drinking — it wouldn't matter if we applied a little manure fertilizer in advance, right?"

Zhang Yu then led several hundred men, and with absolutely no sense of shame, they urinated and defecated into the water, even stirring in some pig and cow dung. If the enemy inside got desperately thirsty and drank it by mistake, they would absolutely have diarrhea until the sky went dark and the earth spun.

A short while later, the brave men were chosen. The front rank wore heavy armor, the rear rank two layers of leather armor. They abandoned long weapons, which could not be swung at all inside the well-canal, and carried only ring-pommel sabers and large shields. Zheng Tong walked at the very front, and one by one they entered.

In this battle, numbers meant nothing — it all came down to who was fiercer when they met on the narrow path!

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Outside, Jing Dan waited anxiously. Meanwhile, the scouts lying at the well-mouths on the mountain ridge, listening for sounds — from Well No. 1 to Well No. 25, one after another — felt the heavy footsteps of hundreds of men advancing through the well-canal, followed by the clang and clatter of blade against blade, and shouts of slaughter and screams of agony that seemed to make the very earth tremble!

Jing Dan could not see the battle. He could only imagine it from the sounds and the reports of soldiers who kept coming out: the two sides like wild beasts meeting in the dark, tearing and wrestling with fang and claw in the narrow burrow. The corpses falling on both sides could even block the well-canal.

Dragons battle in the wilds — their blood is dark and yellow. Today, what flowed from the Dragon Head Canal was no longer water, but blood!

Though the number of combatants was limited by the narrow terrain, Tian Kuang's suicide soldiers had lower morale to begin with, and they had also been sabotaged by the stuff Zhang Yu and his men added to the water, leaving them plagued with stomach trouble. Many were vomiting and had diarrhea, drained of strength. The fresh troops on this side were, after all, more numerous. Under wave after wave of assault, the further it went, the more men fled out the north entrance to surrender.

This sunless battle lasted an entire day. Ten li — on a normal day, at a brisk pace, you could cover that in a couple of hours, but this time it took a full ten hours!

In the tenth hour, as the next day's sunlight spilled onto Mount Shangyan, the sounds of slaughter within the well-canal gradually ceased. A man, as though bathed in blood, stepped forth, treading upon the corpses of countless enemies!

Everyone else had already rotated through one to three times. Only Colonel Zheng Tong had fought from start to finish; he was utterly exhausted, his body covered in wounds great and small, yet he still propped himself up with his blade, raised his head, and declared: "Lord Jing, send word to His Excellency — the Dragon Head Canal has been pierced through by us!"

"The shame our unit suffered at Yao Pass is today washed clean with the blood that fills this canal!"

……

"With this, our rear is secure."

Diwu Lun read the report Jing Dan had sent and let out a breath of relief. This Tian Kuang was indeed no ordinary man — to think of hiding suicide soldiers in the well-canal. He had nearly been caught off guard by that move.

Tian Kuang was truly confident. He knew that holding a lone city, with Grand Chancellor Wang Xun ignoring him, was a dead end. So he staked everything on one throw, arraying his troops outside the city and advancing of his own accord. He was gambling that Diwu Lun was not yet firmly established in Hexi, and counting on the surprise suicide troops he had hidden in the well-canal behind enemy lines!

But this time, Tian Kuang's scheme was likely to come to nothing.

Yet that scoundrel Tian Kuang, in his pursuit of victory, truly pulled out every trick, willing to try anything he could think of.

Diwu Lun had just set down the report from the rear when, at the front where the two armies stood arrayed, Tian Kuang sent a rider galloping past the battle lines, shouting: "Diwu brat, ingrate who betrays his master — do you dare face General Tian in single combat to decide who is the greater man?"

……

PS: Chapter 3 at 18:00, next chapter will be a big one.