Chapter 315: Han Xin

With the King of Wei personally holding the line, the Wei army reacted with lightning speed. The moment they spotted Chongling troops forcing a crossing several li east of the pontoon bridge, they rushed troops over. Several hundred lightly armored crossbowmen arrived first, hastily forming ranks on the bank and aiming their crossbows at the boats swimming over like a school of carp, loosing volleys in rapid succession.

There was no moon tonight, but there was no shortage of light. The campfires of the thousands upon thousands of soldiers on both banks reddened the sky, and the fierce flames from the fireships crashing into the pontoon bridge lit up the river. The Wei River shimmered with shifting light and shadow like a bronze mirror.

Volley after volley studded the Chongling boats' planks with arrows. The soldiers at the front raised their great Wukui shields, and all that could be heard was the incessant muffled thud of impacts. Some crossbow bolts struck with such force that they pierced straight through the shields, pinning the Chongling soldiers' hands to them. Yet despite the pain, they still held the shields up with grim determination, refusing to retreat, blood streaming down their wrists. Others were staggered backward by the bolts and toppled into the water, and some unlucky souls were struck by the great Yellow Crossbow — their boats' gunwales shattered and sank on the spot.

The vanguard force numbered two thousand men in total. During the river crossing, over a hundred soldiers had already been killed or wounded in succession. The river waters drifted red. The lightly armored floated half-submerged in the water; those in iron armor sank to the riverbed, man and armor together.

But due to the distance and the wind, some arrows had lost their force by the time they arrived, blown sideways by the crosswind to fall askew. One such arrow, neither too high nor too low, was caught by Liu Ji, who snatched it out of the air with one hand and raised it high, rousing the soldiers on the entire boat to fervent excitement.

"Champion Marquis, splendid!"

Liu Ji was the foremost general under Liu Bosheng. At the battle of Little Chang'an, it was he who fought at the front and cut a bloody path out of the encirclement, preventing Yan You from annihilating the entire army. At the battle of the Tang River, it was again he who charged forward with unmatched valor, sending Dou Rong fleeing with his tail between his legs.

Afterward, he seized several counties in succession and captured Luyang Pass, and even when facing Wang Xun's hundred-thousand-strong army, he never showed fear. And because he had repeatedly broken through enemy lines and fought his way out of encirclements, his valor surpassing the entire army — even though he had often spoken insolently to Liu Xuan — the Gengshi Emperor, who wanted to urge Liu Bosheng into the pass, reluctantly enfeoffed him as "Champion Marquis."

Champion County was right there in Nanyang, but Liu Ji's heart was forever on the battlefield.

The casualties during the crossing were not light, but the hardest part was yet to come. The boats could hardly rush straight to the bank in one go. The first Chongling soldiers to arrive jumped down and advanced in single file, the river water rising past their knees. The riverbed was a morass of mud — every step sank deep, and lifting a foot back out took great effort.

They had deliberately skirted the wall-and-rampart fortifications the Wei army had built on the opposite bank of the pontoon bridge, but they still had to attack uphill against a riverbank that rose over ten feet above the riverbed. The slope was not steep, but it was enough to give the Wei army the advantage of terrain. Besides the several hundred lightly armored crossbowmen, several thousand more Wei soldiers in full armor now arrived from the main camp. Spearmen had already hastily formed ranks and were locked in close-quarters combat with the Chongling soldiers coming ashore.

The Chongling troops charged fiercely. Had the enemy been Xin Dynasty soldiers, they would likely have broken at the first clash. But these men were not the militia or the Yue Cavalry Battalion, whose morale Lai Xi had shattered and who had scattered in rout. These were the "veterans" who had risen up with Diwu Lun at Hongmen. Linyi, Hedong — battle after battle had swelled their confidence, and the training drilled into them in their spare hours had made their coordination formidable. The art of killing had been honed to maturity. The lives of the Chongling soldiers were steadily spent there on the riverbank; with every breath, men fell into the mud and blood.

But the Wei soldiers, too, would be hooked and dragged down by enemies equally versed in the ways of the battlefield. A ring-pommel blade would come chopping down on their heads, ending their lives, sometimes even taking their heads clean off.

Liu Ji did not rush to charge into the fray. Instead, he fixed his gaze intently on the enemy. Seeing that the opposing side, in order to thicken their battle line, had packed themselves in layer upon layer on the riverbank, he judged the moment was nearly right and immediately let out a great shout:

"Throw the ji!"

Crossbows were not easy to maintain and consumed a great deal of ammunition. Moreover, because Diwu Lun had swept away all the best crossbows from the Guanzhong armories, Liu Bosheng's army was relatively short on ranged weapons. When it came time to charge, Liu Ji therefore substituted short ji halberds, which were also easy to cast.

The front rank of shield-and-saber men raised their shields high overhead to block the Wei soldiers' spears stabbing down from above and the rising and falling dagger-axes. Over a hundred Chongling soldiers, braving the crossbow bolts, suddenly sprinted forward and hurled the short halberds in their hands with vicious force!

Though there were some shields among the dagger-axe and spear formation, the front-rank spearmen still took heavy losses. Thick armor might keep a man from dying, but the searing pain was unavoidable. Those struck in the arms or thighs had no choice but to abandon their spears and fall back, letting their comrades take their place.

What was hurled up at them was not only short halberds, but also the heads of their fallen Wei comrades, flung up wildly, still dripping blood. In the darkness of night, unable to see clearly, the Wei soldiers thought they were some kind of hidden weapon. Only when they stabbed at them or blocked them with their shields did they realize something was wrong. They had fought their share of battles, but this was the first time they had seen such a ferocious army. In their hearts, there was both fury and fear.

Fury made them quicken their stabbing thrusts; fear made the Wei soldiers begin to bellow and roar, trying to drive away their own dread.

The Chongling soldiers on the other side had likewise never encountered such tenacious opponents. The fighting was grueling. They too were gripped by these two emotions, cursing and swearing without end — the louder the curses, the more hollow the heart within. The battle lost the orderly back-and-forth of its opening stages and began to descend into a chaotic free-for-all.

"Kill!"

Seizing this moment of slight chaos, Liu Ji glared fiercely and let out a great roar. He personally led the reserve force, charging up at a point where the enemy line was weak and had been thrown into disarray by the short halberds.

Several spears thrust at him from the opposite side, but Liu Ji paid them no heed. Relying on his thick armor, he took two hits head-on, yet his hands never stopped. His strikes were deadly accurate, each aimed at gaps the enemy's armor could not protect. Three saber strokes felled three men. When his blade jammed in bone and its edge curled, he simply snatched up a long ji halberd from the ground. After skewering two more men, he turned it sideways and, at close quarters, braced it against three or five men at once. Relying on his own immense strength, he drove them backward without pause!

The Chongling soldiers followed close behind him, climbing onto the riverbank one after another. The two sides melded into a chaotic melee.

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In terms of combat experience, the Chongling troops had been fighting for over a year since their uprising and had seen more battles — they held a slight edge. In terms of the sharpness of their arms and armor, Diwu Lun had emptied the Xin Dynasty armories and swept away all the craftsmen, giving the Wei soldiers the advantage. In morale, one side was the righteous army that had slain Wang Mang, riding a wave of consecutive victories and brimming with confidence, steadfastly following the King of Wei. The other side was the Han-restoration host, fierce and unwilling to be outdone, revering and adoring Liu Bosheng — but their long encampment south of the Wei and minor setbacks had slightly dampened their spirits. For a time, the two sides fought as evenly matched opponents.

But the Chongling soldiers who charged onto the riverbank were soon met with a head-on hammer blow. The opposing side also had a reserve force, which had been husbanding its strength for a long time and now entered the battlefield at the most critical moment.

This was a true army of a hundred battles. The shield-bearers advanced holding their shields before them; the dagger-axe and spear men swung their weapons to clear a path behind the shields; the archers could shoot skyward as they marched; the armored saber-wielders hacked down any enemy who drew near — all in seamless coordination.

They moved forward step by step like an iron hedgehog, becoming the bedrock that steadied the battle line. Everywhere the Chongling soldiers met them, they were defeated. The line that Liu Ji had just barely pried open a crack in began to slowly push back again. And at their head, a man of short stature was especially fierce and valiant.

Like Liu Ji, this man was drenched in blood from head to toe — it was impossible to tell if it was his own or the enemy's. In the space of just two breaths, Liu Ji saw with his own eyes as the man used his long saber to stab down one Chongling soldier, then hack down another. Though he took a spear thrust to the left shoulder, he did not so much as blink, instead turning his hand to skewer the enemy dead.

Watching one after another of his clansmen and brothers, men who had followed him for so long, fall dead, Liu Ji was frantic with rage. The two sides drew closer; the most elite troops were about to collide. Liu Ji raised his blood-soaked halberd and let out another great roar.

"That Wei general — who is he?"

His voice was swallowed by the screams and shouts. The other man disdained to answer, merely raising the icy blade in his hand and cutting down one more man in reply.

This was the King of Wei's Marquis of Shangyan, Zheng Tong.

These several hundred men were the death-soldier battalion Zheng Tong had formed after the battle of Longshou Canal. In the Hedong campaign, serving as the first to ascend the walls, they had force-marched over a hundred li in a single day and night, fighting their way to the vicinity of Anyi, so terrifying the old man Wang Xun that he abandoned the city and fled.

Liu Ji was the man whose valor surpassed the entire Chongling army, and Zheng Tong was a man in the Wei army whose ferocity in battle yielded to no one!

The vanguard's fierce assault had been blocked by Zheng Tong's resistance. Just as the Chongling offensive was about to show signs of flagging, a tremendous roll of drums sounded from several li to the west. Even Zheng Tong could not help turning his head to glance in that direction.

Liu Ji, however, burst into loud laughter.

The Pillar Heaven Grand General's way of using troops: feint becomes real, real becomes feint. Every attack is genuine, and every wave of "fierce assault" — if you fail to guard against it, you will surely suffer a great loss. It also serves to pave the way for the true hammer blow that follows!

The forced crossing was happening at more than one location. The motley allied troops were attempting to cross the Wei in succession using small boats and skiffs that could be rowed back and reused, coming to support Liu Ji. Even Liu Bosheng, leading the last two thousand Chongling soldiers left at his side, had personally taken the field!

Unlike Liu Ji, who was tasked with drawing the main strength of the Wei army, Liu Bosheng had only one objective:

Wherever Diwu Lun was!

"King against King!"

Setting aside the fireships that kept coming from upstream, the offensive on Liu Bosheng's side, west of the pontoon bridge, was going far more smoothly than Liu Ji's, which had drawn the bulk of the Wei army.

His feet at last trod upon the soil of the northern bank. He advanced with resolute strides, Chongling soldiers clustering around him to clear a path, beating back the "scattered" enemy troops in this sector. When they climbed onto the riverbank, the Xiliu Camp, ablaze with torchlight, lay just four li to the north.

By all reckoning, the elite troops under Diwu Lun — that is, the army that had risen with him at Hongmen — numbered as follows: five thousand had been left in Hedong, five thousand had been detached to Jing Dan at Tongyuan, and another five thousand had been left to garrison Yueyang and the Zheng Guo Canal army depot. That left twenty-five thousand.

Ten thousand were given to Wan Xiu at the Middle Wei Bridge, dozens of li to the east. Ten thousand were given to young Geng at Xiliu Camp. Five thousand Diwu Lun kept at his side for central command.

At noon today, after Diwu Lun rendezvoused with Geng Yan, he had again dispatched Geng with several thousand troops elsewhere. When battle was joined at the Middle Wei Bridge, he sent out another two thousand. At the very most, there remained over ten thousand men in Xiliu Camp.

But after the battle began, at least five thousand troops had been sent several li to the east to intercept Liu Ji. After this not-very-complicated arithmetic, and not counting the civilian laborers accompanying the army, Diwu Lun still had four or five thousand troops left under his command. These were now drawn up in formation outside Xiliu Camp — and that was the number Liu Bosheng would have to deal with.

"Cen Peng, this must be that 'mere ten percent chance of victory' you spoke of!"

In Liu Bosheng's mind, using Liu Ji to draw off the bulk of the Wei troops while he personally led his soldiers in a deathblow across the Wei was the closest he could get to victory!

Those four or five thousand Wei soldiers were Diwu Lun's final reserve. They held aloft their torches, linking into a sea of flame. In the firelight, their sweat-beaded foreheads were all bound with yellow scarves. Amid the chaotic night battle, they stood in silent array — a dependable, formidable force, as if they had been waiting all along for Liu Bosheng to set foot on the bank. Just as Diwu Lun's rather self-assured order had stated:

"Let him come ashore to fight."

Diwu Lun, too, did not rush over to drive the Chongling soldiers back into the water. Instead, he ordered his three armies to conserve their strength and wait. At his command, they slowly divided from the great formation into smaller battle-ready units, deploying into a crescent-moon formation facing Liu Bosheng directly. One could call it "composed and unhurried." And this was at night! Two months ago, such a thing would have been almost unimaginable.

The Chongling soldiers were now one man fighting two. A question loomed before Liu Bosheng: should he wait half a shichen, even a full shichen, to hold the riverbank and let the ten-thousand-plus motley troops from the rear come across in succession — or should he press the attack in one single surge?

This was a choice to be made in a hair's-breadth moment. Waiting would allow Diwu Lun to leisurely transfer a portion of his troops back from Liu Ji's sector, and Wan Xiu would surely rush to reinforce as well.

And attacking — that was, without a doubt, yet another gamble!

"Attack!"

The moment could not be missed — Liu Bosheng the gambler made his decision. The Flame Han banner thrust forward in the wind, and at his command, the last of the Chongling soldiers began to beat their blades against their shields and step forward.

But just as the two formations drew closer together, a fiery dragon appeared in the west.

They came with ferocious speed, swift as the wind. At their head, on a white horse, was the young commander who half a day earlier had led three or four thousand men to "pursue Lai Xi" — Geng Yan!

Following Diwu Lun's plan, he had circled around to ten li north of Willow Camp, let the troops rest enough, and when the battle began, charged back, driving straight at the Chongling soldiers' flank.

Diwu Lun had not let him go catch that little sparrow Lai Xi — a pity, true — but with a big fish like Liu Bosheng here, young Geng was suddenly not sleepy at all.

He was like the head of the fire serpent, his eyes blazing: "Liu Bosheng! Your best horse against my best horse!"

His younger brother Geng Guo followed close behind, panting as he looked at the Chongling soldiers pinned on the narrow riverbank by Diwu Lun and their own pincer attack, and muttered: "I thought you would wait a while longer, Elder Brother, and strike only when Liu Bosheng and the King of Wei were locked in an indecisive struggle."

"Foolish — wouldn't that have thrown the King of Wei into danger?"

The second brother, Geng Shu, shot the third brother a fierce glare: "Elder Brother merely uses troops in the manner of Han Xin — he is not the real Han Xin."

"And our family would never imitate Han Xin!"

…

PS: Second chapter at 23:00, to wrap up this arc.