Chapter 309: Grinding Beans

Though Liu Bosheng scorned the Wei River, without enough boats, a river over a hundred paces wide still demanded some respect. What's more, Diwu Lun had made thorough preparations, his army arrayed on the opposite bank precisely to drag things out with Liu Bosheng, hoping to strike him mid-crossing. So some maneuvering was needed to shift the enemy.

Hence the dispatch of Deng Chen eastward with five thousand troops.

"One skilled in warfare draws the enemy out rather than being drawn out by him. To make the enemy come of his own accord, entice him with advantage."

"Wei Qing, your task is not merely to link up with Wang Yanqing and join forces at Huayin to threaten Hexi, thereby enticing Diwu Lun to divert troops from north of the Wei eastward."

Their strategy was to feint east and strike west, but the eastern thrust was not entirely a bluff — it was a real attack too. That being the case, they had to make a big show of it.

The offensive against Huayin and the other counties went rather smoothly. Diwu Lun had no wish to have his forces tied down in such places and abandoned them when necessary, choosing only Tongyuan as the defensive position when planning strategy with Jing Dan.

Now, all that stood between Deng Chen and Wang Chang was this high, ridged loess plateau!

Gazing into the distance, Deng Chen sighed with emotion: "So this is the Peach Grove Pass of the Zuo Commentary. The ancients did not deceive me."

It was a case of accidental success: the Zuo Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals, with its quite detailed descriptions of battle formations and terrain, had flourished at the end of the Han and into the Xin Dynasty thanks to Liu Xin's promotion, becoming an introductory text for scholars to learn geography and military conflict.

Deng Chen had read it too and knew how, in the Spring and Autumn period, the state of Jin had used this strategic defile to choke Qin for two hundred years. Diwu Lun was now simply reusing that old tactic.

The locals also told him a local legend: "If an army passes through and does good, it pastures on Mount Hua and rests beneath the woods; if it does evil, the river bursts its banks and spreads, and neither men nor horses can cross."

The meaning was this: the banks of the Tong River were the necessary route for the official road. Travelers from east of the pass, after enduring countless hardships crossing Huangxiang Slope and craning their necks to climb over Tongyuan, could, in fine weather, ford the river directly with carts and horses. But if it turned rainy, the river rose and flooded, turning the broad Tong River channel into a marsh, making passage impossible for men and horses.

At present, the water was neither high nor low — barely fordable, still a natural barrier. But what Deng Chen had not expected was that Jing Dan had simply abandoned defending the Tong River and concentrated all his forces up on the plateau.

Seeing this, Deng Chen was overjoyed: "Abandoning the river for the heights — if I cut off their water source, then over time, the Wei troops are bound to be defeated."

Wang Chang was under immense supply pressure and had brought little grain. Although Deng Chen was feeding his army off the land, plundering Huayin and the other counties — Diwu Lun could not, after all, strip every household bare — they too could not hold out for many days.

But men endure thirst far worse than hunger; it was a contest of each side's stamina.

A young junior officer beside him, however, raised an objection: "Uncle, this plateau is vast — over ten li east to west, several dozen li north to south, thickly forested. I expect there must be water sources atop it."

This man was named Deng Feng, courtesy name Fengxian — Deng Chen's nephew. Had war not broken out and Deng Chen risen into the Greenwood high command, Deng Feng should have been the head of the Deng clan. He also had a history: he had once sought marriage with the Yin clan before Liu Xiu, but was refused.

When he heard that Liu Bosheng was unwilling to trade Cen Peng for the Yin siblings, the blunt-tempered Deng Feng had been rather displeased.

"It was he who arranged the betrothal of the Yin clan's fair daughter to Liu Wenshu. Now that those people have been taken hostage, it is also he who refuses to exchange for them. Is Liu Bosheng truly what one calls a great man?"

Deng Chen gave him a thorough scolding for these words. But when it came to marching and fighting, Deng Feng was actually better than his uncle. Now he pointed to the terrain of Tongyuan and analyzed: "Uncle, look also at the contraptions on the edge of the great plateau's cliff!"

There were indeed contraptions — much like the derricks used to hoist baskets and buckets of coal from a mine. A group of men were huffing and puffing, hauling on ropes, lifting bucket after bucket of water up from the Tong River at the base of the plateau.

It turned out that when Diwu Lun had been digging coal and making briquettes years ago, he had tinkered out a labor-saving pulley. This time he had dispatched craftsmen to accompany Jing Dan, and they had built these water-lifting devices, drawing water ceaselessly from the Tong River. In addition to the streams on the plateau and the wells they had dug, this ensured the water supply for the entire army.

Deng Feng said: "They have retreated onto the plateau but their water source is not cut off, and they must have stored several thousand shi of grain as well. Uncle, we cannot afford to drag this out."

Deng Chen nodded: "By Fengxian's reckoning, we should attack swiftly?"

Deng Feng said: "The art of war says: cast them onto doomed ground and they will survive; plunge them into death ground and they will live. If we attack from both east and west, in the eyes of the Wei troops this plateau will also seem like death ground — defeat means certain death, so they will fight desperately. Our army will be at a disadvantage attacking uphill."

According to his analysis, the enemy's move of abandoning the river for the heights, while appearing passive, had in fact seized the initiative entirely. Whether the Greenwood forces dragged things out or attacked, the enemy could respond with ease.

Deng Chen sent men to interrogate prisoners captured on the way east: "Who is the commander of this Wei army?"

"Jing Dan."

Deng Chen had never heard this name before: "A nobody. I hear he is an old friend of Diwu Lun — without any merit, yet made Imperial Counselor, enfeoffed as a marquis, and now given sole command of an army."

Deng Feng gave a cold laugh: "Uncle, could a nobody have made such a shrewd deployment?"

True enough — an unknown general this formidable. Deng Chen felt a headache coming on; the Wei army was indeed hard to deal with. "Then by Fengxian's strategy, since we can neither drag this out nor attack, what should we do?"

Deng Feng bowed with clasped hands: "This battle should never have been fought. Uncle, if you take the Deng clan troops now and withdraw along the mountain roads south of Huayin toward Wu Pass, there is still time!"

"Insolence!"

Deng Chen was furious: "Are you trying to make me betray Bosheng?"

He was deeply disappointed in his nephew: "The physiognomist said your face bore signs of rebellion — I did not believe it then, but today it proves true!"

Deng Feng, however, spoke with conviction: "My Deng clan is not the servant of the Liu brothers. Uncle, you are also one of the Gengshi Emperor's Nine Ministers, not a subordinate of Liu Bosheng — where is the rebellion in this?"

Deng Feng had never thought well of the brothers Liu Bosheng and Liu Xiu. He felt that since Deng Chen was already a widower, he should not bind the Deng clan to them any further, sharing in the Gengshi court's loathing. Since entering the pass, Liu Bosheng had committed one presumptuous act after another, and now he was staking everything on a single throw. Why should the Deng clan follow him in placing that bet?

In Chang'an, he had been reluctant to offer counsel, but now, facing his own uncle, he spoke his mind plainly: "Uncle, from the moment he entered Guanzhong, Liu Bosheng took the wrong path. When the overall direction is wrong, no matter how you try to remedy it afterward, it is like driving south when you mean to go north — utterly futile!"

Deng Feng pointed across the Yellow River: "Uncle, were you not wondering why the Wei army, with its fighting strength, collapsed at the first touch, letting our army take Huayin and the other counties with ease and fight all the way here? Please, look north to Fengling Ford!"

They were at the confluence of the Wei River, the Tong River, and the Yellow River — another great bend in the thousand-li Yellow River, making the water's surface appear even broader.

"Fengling Ford shows no banners, troops, or campfires, but the riverbank is open. Small boats can hide among the reed beds, but large transport vessels cannot be concealed — they are all moored by the docks, just waiting for our army to lose patience and launch a fierce assault on Tongyuan, so they can land troops by boat and strike our rear!"

"This is also why the Wei army chose this place as their defensive position."

Deng Chen listened, stunned. This meant that Diwu Lun had turned their own stratagem against them — their feint east, strike west had been seen through. The ones being tied down here were not the Wei army, but the Greenwood forces?

This wouldn't work, that wouldn't work — Deng Chen was deeply troubled. Yet he absolutely could not do as his nephew suggested and betray Bosheng. They had suffered so disastrously at Little Chang'an, and the two families had shared honor and disgrace through it — how much more so now?

With Deng Chen holding the Tong River, he sent men south along the gullies and managed to make contact with Wang Chang's scouts, who had been crossing the mountains. They brought Wang Chang's request: "Held up here for days, the Xiao-Han road is long and stretched thin, making supply transport difficult. The Hongnong Greenwood troops are nearly out of dry rations. This battle must be fought!"

"General Wang is growing anxious."

In his place, anyone would be anxious. Deng Chen gritted his teeth and decided to stick to the original plan — a joint assault with Wang Chang from east and west, to see if they could take Tongyuan in one stroke!

When assigning roles for the battle, Deng Feng volunteered for a duty: "Since Uncle is determined to attack, once battle is joined, the Wei army from Hedong will surely strike. I ask to guard the mouth of the Wei!"

Deng Chen understood his nephew's intent now. He could only sigh: "This is planning for defeat before planning for victory, planning for retreat before planning for advance. But I can only give you eight hundred men!"

"That will be enough."

Deng Feng was pessimistic about the war as a whole, but utterly confident in himself: "Let your nephew guard your back for you, Uncle!"

"But this battle — I am not fighting it for Liu Bosheng. I am fighting it so that our Deng clan troops can withdraw intact!"

"The Greenwood forces have finally lost patience."

Jing Dan had not had a single good night's sleep these past days on Tongyuan, but the plan was gradually falling into the strategy he and Diwu Lun had devised before his departure.

Liu Bosheng had wanted the Deng clan troops to link up with Wang Chang, making Huayin precarious and forcing Diwu Lun to send troops east to reinforce, thereby drawing off the forces defending the Wei River. But Diwu Lun had dismissed this entirely, because the reinforcements he had left for Jing Dan were precisely the Hedong army!

"General Jing, Wang Chang has also begun attacking Huangxiang Slope!" The Seventh Company Commander came to report, his face covered in yellow dust. After days of probing, with morale set to decline if they dragged on any longer, Wang Chang had finally sent troops along the narrow, winding path to begin the uphill assault on Tongyuan's eastern mouth.

"Commander Seventh, have you ever seen soybean milk being ground?"

Jing Dan smiled as he gestured across the vast battlefield: "This Tongyuan is a great millstone, and the Greenwood forces on both east and west are the soybeans, ceaselessly, willingly leaping into it. The King of Wei means to use this place to grind the Greenwood bones to dust, to turn the rivers and the Wei red, and to make Liu Bosheng and the Gengshi Emperor quake with fear!"

The hand that commanded three armies against the foe now turned like a millstone — the Wei army, the Greenwood men, all would have to fight with real blades and real spears in a bloody, grinding battle against an enemy they had never faced before! The Greenwood's two great columns would be pinned here by Jing Dan, using the terrain, exposing their vulnerable rear and flanks…

Everything was in place — only one thing was missing.

"Light the wolf-smoke!"

"The beans and grain are already in my mill. Duke of Zhou Dou, it is time for you to add the water!"

…

The fighting on the opposite bank had already lasted a full day and night. Dou Rong stood at Fengling Ford with a dark expression, watching the Colonel who knelt before him, touching his head to the ground in admission of guilt.

He had received Diwu Lun's edict: spare no cost, assist Jing Dan in holding off the enemy at Tongyuan. Jing Dan and the Seventh Biao's five thousand troops would tie down an enemy many times their number, while Dou Rong's task was to use the Wei army's transport barges and boats to cross the river and strike the Greenwood rear on both the eastern and western flanks — to make their offensive fail, to grind them down bit by bit upon this great millstone!

Yet when the procedure reached the step of "adding water," Dou Rong found it far from easy to carry out.

"Lord Dou, you cannot blame us entirely. For one, the wind is against us — the boats must cross against the wind, relying solely on rowing, so they cannot pick up speed. The bandits can see at a glance where we are headed."

"For another, the great bluffs on the southern bank rise high — a natural barrier for the Greenwood men, and just as much for us. The places where boats can land are few and far between, no more than the Wei Mouth and a handful of other spots…"

The Greenwood too had men of high skill. When the first force Dou Rong dispatched tried to land at Wei Mouth and strike the rear route, it met an enemy ambush instead. From the high ground on the bank, the foe was utterly ferocious. Had the Colonel not fled fast, leaving over a hundred corpses behind, even the boats would have been captured.

The one they ran into was none other than Deng Feng. The Hedong troops had underestimated the enemy and lost the first engagement, suffering a heavy setback.

The Colonel sent to raid Wang Chang's rear also returned with broken wings. Wang Chang's army had stretched into a long serpent within Huangxiang Slope, locked in bitter combat with the Seventh Biao blocking the eastern mouth of Tongyuan. If that serpent could be cut in two, a great victory was certain.

It looked far too tempting, but the flanks of Huangxiang Slope were jagged with strange rocks — large boats could not draw near, and only small craft could land. In the end, the vanguard also ran into an ambush laid by Wang Chang. Seeing no opening, the Colonel withdrew in frustration.

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Dou Rong could not help grumbling inwardly: "The King of Wei and Jing Dan made it sound so easy when they planned it — transport barges moving troops, striking the flank and rear — but when it comes to actually carrying it out, how can it be so simple?"

He suspected that the last assault on Hedong, the beach landing, had gone far too smoothly, giving Diwu Lun the mistaken impression that every battle could be that effortless!

But grinding beans — dry grinding is no easy thing. Tongyuan was bearing the brunt of the enemy's fierce assault, and the wolf-smoke was rising again, urging Dou Rong to add the water.

Dou Rong was deeply anxious. His status was peculiar — not quite a surrendered general, yet not quite an old retainer either. He had originally rallied two or three thousand broken troops to join Diwu Lun, only to be scattered and routed by those damned Yue Cavalry, leaving him practically alone when he entered the fold.

Diwu Lun had given him an empty title, granted him a noble rank, and put him in charge of Hedong. For over a month now, Dou Rong had worked with utmost diligence, more conscientious than when he had served his own kinsman, the Grand Minister of Works Wang Yi. Given time to govern the commandery properly, he would surely have achieved results.

But then this war had come upon him so quickly. Had Dou Rong been given full authority and a free hand, even though his repeated defeats at the hands of the Greenwood men had left him somewhat daunted, he could still have managed well enough.

The trouble was that the five thousand troops under Dou Rong's command were the men Diwu Lun had left behind in Hedong — truly "arrogant soldiers and fierce officers," every man a Seventh Biao in his own mind. They looked down on a latecomer like Dou Rong, barely obeyed his orders, and were extremely awkward to work with. Dou Rong was mild by nature; executing men was not something he could easily do. He could only slowly wear them down with patience, but the war would not give him time.

An edict was an edict. Dou Rong knew he had to carry it out. Jing Dan and the Seventh Biao were founding heroes — if Dou Rong proved useless from start to finish, and the two of them lodged an impeachment with Diwu Lun, his post as Governor of Hedong might well come to an end!

And so Dou Rong rose in indignation: "General Jing and General Seventh are fighting to the death with their troops — the wolf-smoke has been lit I know not how many times! How can we stand by and watch from the ramparts?"

That was right — Dou Rong needed a "Xiang Yu" to step forward. But after two setbacks, the Colonels were now thrice roused and spent. They looked at one another, none willing to step out.

When fighting the new army, every man had vied to be first. Today, discovering that the Greenwood was a tough bone to gnaw, they had all begun to think it better to let the allied troops go first — truly, they had all absorbed the King of Wei's true teachings!

"If only the Marquis of Shangyan, Zheng Tong, were here," Dou Rong sighed, hoping to goad the men. But it was utterly useless on these old army foxes — only Diwu Lun and the four chief commanders could keep them in line.

"So be it."

Seeing that his own prestige was not enough to compel Diwu Lun's old followers, Dou Rong devised a method that would offend no one.

He had someone bring some bamboo slips, picked out a short one and wrote "First to Ascend" upon it, then mixed it in with the rest of the long slips. Holding them in his hand, he called the Colonels forward one by one to draw.

"Whoever draws the short slip shall be the vanguard for the next river crossing and assault — let Heaven decide!"

The Colonels stepped forward and drew their lots, each studying his own slip, their faces a mix of worry and relief.

One slip remained in Dou Rong's hand, a long one. He raised his head: "Who holds the short slip?"

For a long moment, no one spoke. Just as the unlucky man was about to raise his hand, someone lifted the tent flap and entered — it was a Hedong man who had arrived under orders to supervise the grain transport: Zhang Zong, courtesy name Zhujun!

The Colonels looked down on men of Hedong origin, regarding them as a motley auxiliary force. Supervising the new army captives digging salt at the Xie Pool, escorting grain — that was fine. But snatching glory? Stand aside!

"Lord Dou, I too am qualified to draw a lot, am I not?" Zhang Zong was not one to swallow this. He strode forward, and without waiting for Dou Rong to speak, plucked the slip from his hand — a long one.

Yet before the eyes of all, Zhang Zong gave a sharp snap and broke it into two pieces!

"Zhujun!"

His courtesy name was Zhujun — it was unclear whether he was addressing the others or speaking of himself.

"What great fortune!"

Zhang Zong raised the slip and laughed aloud: "The short lot — it is with me! This grand achievement — Zong shall not decline it!"

…

PS: Tomorrow's update at 13:00.