Chapter 344: Battle on the Zhou Plain

After drinking that bowl of wine from Wei Cui, Niu Han and the sons of the Six Commanderies all seethed with fervor. For the past month, the Wei army had turtled up and refused battle, but now the situation had shifted — the battle lines had stretched long, and it was their turn to fortify the walls and clear the fields, using their cavalry advantage to sever the Wei army's supply lines.

Yet the Hu Cavalry Battalion he led spent days lying in ambush along the main road from the Five Tombs to Mei County, only to encounter decoy convoys hauling fake provisions. Time and again, they lured the Longyou riders in, then immediately formed four-sided assault formations with large wagons to hold them off. When they finally paid with their sons' lives to drive the Wei troops back and thrust a ring-hilted blade into a grain cart, they found the hemp sacks held only fodder — no grain.

Niu Han was utterly baffled. "The Wei army uses nothing but fake grain to lure us on this road — then how is their real grain reaching Mei County? The Mei granary has been burned. An army of tens of thousands can't very well chew on ice to get by, can they?"

Only gradually did they piece it together: the Wei army was relying on the Chengguo Canal to transport grain...

Niu Han found it inconceivable. "In this world of ice and snow, the Wei River and the canals are frozen rock-hard. Transport barges can barely move. How can the Wei army still manage waterborne supply?"

Carrying his doubts, Niu Han risked crossing the Wei army's defensive line and approached the Wei River. He lay prone on a tableland blanketed in snow, and only then understood the reason.

The Chengguo Canal was narrow and small; in the twelfth month, it would freeze solid, with no risk of ice jams, its surface quite smooth. He saw the Wei army's grain convoys moving in single file along the canal. What carried the grain was no ordinary supply cart — what the oxen and horses pulled was a strange sort of vehicle.

Its shape was like a boat, with both ends slightly upturned, much like the "sledge" legend says Yu the Great invented, but far larger. Crossbars were nailed on, struts added, to form a carriage body — it had shafts and a bed, but no wheel hubs. Drawn by ox or horse, it flew across the ice. The hooves of the oxen and horses were wrapped in felt and shod with iron cleats to prevent slipping.

According to the captured civilian laborers: "This is a device the King of Wei devised during his time in New Qin. It's called a 'sledge.' Last month, trees were felled on Mount Ganquan and Mount Shaoliang, and the Privy Treasury craftsmen built over a thousand of them."

For this winter campaign, the month spent fortifying the walls and clearing the fields at the Five Tombs had not been without preparation. Diwu Lun brought out the sledges he had invented back in New Qin. This year the snow was heavy and deep; the ravines were all covered in ice and snow, and the sledges, advancing along canals or riverbanks, moved far faster than horse-drawn carts.

And the Chengguo Canal, running from Diwu Lun's old home of Changling through Wugong all the way to Mei County, was like a high-speed highway linking Weibei and Right Fufeng, keeping the grain supply flowing freely.

Niu Han stared, momentarily dazed. He counted the sledges in this batch — several dozen of them, each with two men, one driving, one standing guard with a weapon. Along the canal banks, soldiers and civilian laborers marched westward in a steady stream to protect them.

He ordered a harassing attack, but the grain-transport troops had clearly been trained for this. They immediately pulled the carts back under guard and retreated onto the ice. If cavalry dared follow, they would lose all mobility.

Worse, follow-up Wei troops, alerted by the news, began circling around to cut off their rear. Niu Han, isolated and deep in enemy territory, had no choice but to pull his men back.

Niu Han rushed at once to Chencang and reported this latest development to Wei Cui. "White Tiger Grand General, Diwu Lun has the advantage of the Chengguo Canal and the sledges. The Wei army can likely winter comfortably in Mei County, Wugong, and the other towns!"

Their plan to make Diwu Lun taste the bitterness of fortified walls and cleared fields was probably going to fall through — though in truth, the Wei clan had overestimated Diwu Lun's logistical capacity. At best, he could send ten to fifteen days' worth of grain to the front; truly holding out for long was still no easy matter.

But in the Wei clan's mind, once things dragged on into spring, Diwu Lun would grow even more unbridled in shifting manpower westward. The Chengguo Canal and the Wei River would both be navigable, with far greater carrying capacity. The Longyou side, by contrast, could only eat through the grain stored in Chencang and Yong. The reinforcements Wei Ao had promised would have to cross the Long Slope to arrive. In a protracted war, they were absolutely no match for Diwu Lun.

For this reason, when Wei Cui and Niu Han learned that Diwu Lun's great army had left Mei County and was advancing westward, they felt a secret surge of joy.

"Diwu Lun abandons a certain-victory posture and rashly presses west — this is a rare opportunity."

Two choices lay before Wei Cui: disperse his troops to hold Chencang and Yong County separately and drag things out with Diwu Lun, or concentrate his forces and seek a decisive battle.

Wang Zun, a scion of a great Baling clan, quickly proposed: "Why not have General Niu pull the cavalry back a little, while the White Tiger General and I hold the cities with infantry — five thousand men each in Chencang and Yong County. Diwu Lun, short of tens of thousands of troops, would find them hard to take. The cavalry can then strike out in all directions, cutting off his grain routes and rear. Within ten days, the Wei army will surely retreat in defeat. Pursue the routed troops then, and a great victory can be won."

Niu Han, however, thought this plan unsound. "Since the Wei army now has sledges and uses the Wei River to move grain, cutting them off won't be easy — it's more likely we'd walk into an ambush. Better to strike while they've just arrived and haven't yet dug in!"

Wang Zun still felt caution was wiser. "Diwu Lun has the larger force. Regulars plus civilian laborers combined likely number fifty thousand — far surpassing us!"

Niu Han replied, "Diwu Lun's army is mostly made up of peasant conscripts from Hongmen, tenant farmers and townsfolk pressed into service on short notice. I have the sons of good families from the Six Commanderies — each one a match for five of them, let alone one against three."

When they learned that Diwu Lun's line of advance was not toward Chencang — protected by the Qian River, with its high walls and deep moats — but toward Yong County, the old Qin capital, Wei Cui understood: they no longer had a choice.

"Diwu Lun surely means to take Yong County first, then march north along the Qian River, send troops by the nearest route to relieve Geng Yan, join forces with him, and completely sever our retreat route!"

His nephew Wei Ao had been right: this Diwu Lun left no scheme untried; he truly meant to annihilate them entirely in Right Fufeng.

Wei Cui knocked over the bronze figurines on the map and chose the battlefield best suited to the Longyou sons of good families' cavalry.

"Below Mount Qi — the Zhou Plain. Fight to the death!"

"This Chengguo Canal is truly a remarkable piece of engineering."

Only in these past days had Diwu Lun come to deeply appreciate the brilliance of that canal in front of his old home's gate. In peacetime, it was a sweet spring that cut across two commanderies and irrigated tens of thousands of qing of land. In wartime, paired with the sledges, it became a high-speed road for grain and supplies. Recalling the scene of fighting the Diqi clan over water by the canal, he was filled with emotion.

In the end, he voiced a grievance on behalf of the Chengguo Canal and other great projects from Emperor Wu's time. "People write rhapsodies on the Shanglin Park, fu on the Changyang Palace — why has no one ever written a 'Fu on the Chengguo Canal'?"

Wang Long had been frequently commissioned by Diwu Lun of late — first to compose a fu for the burning of the debt contracts, then, based on the Wei army's expulsion of the powerful Xiong and Bao clans from Shanglin, to write a "Contra Changyang Fu." He had practically become a court-appointed man of letters. Now, hearing the King of Wei's remark, his face could not help but twist wryly. Quick-witted as he was, the crook of his thumb and forefinger was starting to ache.

Fortunately, Diwu Lun did not press Wang Long to burn the midnight oil again. He laughed and said, "Forget it. We'll talk about it later, when I've extended the canal so she can stretch all the way west to the foot of Mount Qi and link up with the Qian River."

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Though it was just a casual remark, as the great army reached the vicinity of Mount Qi and gazed upon this land, Diwu Lun could only feel that if waterworks and irrigation were not revived, this Zhou Plain would soon fall to waste.

He recalled a line Yang Xiong had taught him from the "Mian" poem in the Greater Odes: "How lush the Zhou Plain, even the bitter herbs grow sweet as malt." The meaning: the Zhou Plain was so fertile that even the bitter greens growing there became sweet.

The cradle of the Zhou people in the Book of Songs was described as surpassingly beautiful — lush grasses and trees, a vast and level plain, brimming rivers and marshes, towering Mount Qi. In Diwu Lun's imagination, it should have been a verdant place. Even in winter, the forests on the steep and rugged northern face of Mount Qi should have been dense and thick.

Yet upon arriving, what met his eyes was not the lovely Zhou Plain, but a somewhat desolate wilderness. Much of the land had gone fallow for lack of irrigation; even the winter wheat had not been planted in time. The forests of Mount Qi had long since been logged bare, as if someone had shaved it bald.

Come to think of it, that made sense. Over a thousand years had passed since the Zhou people migrated here. The soil was no longer as fertile as it had been at the start, and the enormous population's huge demand for firewood had sent axes into the mountain forests without regard for season.

"On this Mount Qi, I suppose the cry of the phoenix is heard no more?"

The Zhou Plain today is Weibei tomorrow. Guanzhong was still the empire's most agriculturally advanced region, with the highest yields per mu, but even here, the ecology was beginning to buckle under the strain.

Yet this vast tableland, desolate and withered in the winter, was also a ready-made battlefield. The Wei army had few cavalry; after the thunderbolt that struck the Elite Cavalry Battalion, cavalry was no longer deployed as an independent formation but distributed among the various armies to serve as scouts. Now, as the great army advanced, they fanned out across several dozen li in all directions, ready to report back the moment they encountered the enemy.

"Great King, the vanguard, thirty li to the west, has sighted a large force of the Long army. Our scouts engaged theirs in pursuit; both sides suffered casualties!"

"Both sides suffered casualties" really meant the Wei army scouts had come off worse. In mounted combat, even the Elite Cavalry Battalion was somewhat inferior to the sons of good families who had played and hunted on horseback since childhood.

Diwu Lun immediately sent men to summon Jing Dan and Wan Xiu. He discussed strategy with the two generals. "To lure the Long troops into a decisive battle, our army first let Diqi Biao rashly pursue and suffer a setback, then deliberately moved far from the city walls to come to this Zhou Plain, making a show of racing to relieve Bo Zhao. As expected, the Wei clan has taken the bait and come."

Wan Xiu had some mild criticism of Diwu Lun for leaving Mei County with the army; if anything went wrong, it would be a colossal blunder.

But Diwu Lun, citing the need to boost morale, even said to the two generals with a smile, "Do not fret. Fight with all your might. Even if we lose, I can afford the loss."

At this moment, Wan Xiu merely calculated the troop strengths on both sides. "Conscripted laborers and miscellaneous troops are not a case of 'the more the better.' Thus ten thousand laborers were left in the rear. Our army now numbers forty thousand, of which twenty-five thousand are seasoned soldiers fit for battle, and fifteen thousand are newly recruited troops and militia."

"According to the confessions of deserters, the enemy numbers about eighteen thousand — there may be some discrepancy — with cavalry not exceeding five thousand. The rest are mostly retainers of powerful clans."

Five thousand cavalry, though predominantly light cavalry, was still a terrifying figure. And these were not halfway-converted "mounted infantry," but sons of good families who had galloped across the borderlands, mountains, forests, and grasslands of Longyou since childhood. Over the past two hundred years, even when they met the Xiongnu, they could hold their own against superior numbers and fight to a draw.

Against such an enemy, Wan Xiu was not brimming with confidence.

It was fortunate that Diwu Lun's army had a fellow who claimed to be "adept at defeating cavalry."

Jing Dan, during the earlier council of war, had supported Diwu Lun's risky move and had also proposed many clever stratagems for dealing with the enemy's cavalry.

"When I was in Shanggu, I once contended with the Xiongnu and the Wuhuan alongside the old General Geng. The region had the Youzhou shock cavalry, so we could use cavalry to check cavalry. But though our army has obtained horses from Shangjun and Xihe, cavalry can never be trained in a mere year or half. What this battle will use is nothing other than the tactics of using infantry to check cavalry, and using war wagons to check cavalry."

For over a month, the Privy Treasurer Song Hong had been ordered to prepare for Jing Dan's "using wagons to check cavalry" and "using infantry to check cavalry." The Privy Treasury and Water Revenue Bureau's personnel worked overtime; carpenters, wheelwrights, and cartwrights not only built sledges but also produced a batch of vehicles that could serve both as supply wagons and, once the grain was unloaded, as armored assault wagons.

Meanwhile, the metalworkers forged a batch of weapons specifically designed for the Longyou cavalry, which were issued to the veteran troops for training. When Diwu Lun made his inspection, he had offered a few ideas as well.

Today, they would finally have the chance to put them to use. Jing Dan was even somewhat excited.

"The Zhou Plain looks flat, but in some places the snow is two chi deep — a disadvantage for cavalry. If they charge recklessly and their horses' hooves get bogged down, they'll have to dismount and fight on foot. Therefore, we should seek out places with deep snow to pitch camp and deploy our formations."

Diwu Lun nodded. "Deploy according to the previous plan — the left wing to Junyou, the right wing to Sun Qing!"

"As for this king, I shall personally hold the center army as before!"

Just as Wan and Jing received their orders and returned to their formations, another scout came hurrying back to report.

"Great King, the Long army's vanguard is already within ten li!"

Nine li in the distance, a vast army appeared at the edge of Zhou Plain. Tens of thousands of black hooves trampled the white snow as they slowly advanced toward the Wei army, which had not yet finished forming its ranks.

They all wore armor of varying colors, and the banners, spears, and halberds they gripped in their hands were of no uniform style. On their backs they carried bows and crossbows of differing draw weights. The horses in the front ranks, like their masters, were fully armored, most bearing barding.

These were the sons of good families riding to war. From horse to armor, every item was privately purchased with their own funds — fine steeds from the western market, saddles and saddlecloths from the eastern market — all sustained by their family estates. This group was unmistakably the knightly class of the Han dynasty, each man followed by one or two attendants and auxiliaries. Two thousand sons of good families and three thousand attendant riders formed the main strength of the Long army.

As for the retainers of those sixteen powerful houses and the great clans of Weinan? They had been left behind by the cavalry and were not yet in sight.

Looking back at Diwu Lun's side: rank upon rank of common peasant conscripts, originally cannon fodder that Wang Mang intended to send south, who by chance followed Diwu Lun in rebellion and from then on set out upon a path that would change their fate.

Half a year ago, they were worthless troops who could not be propped up, nearly destroyed within the city of Chang'an. But through battle after battle over the past half year — east of the river, along the Wei River, on the Tong Plateau — those who survived had been tempered from slag into iron. Today, even facing this immensely oppressive cavalry formation of the Longyou army, they could still grip their weapons, heed their officers' commands, and push the armored war wagons forward to calmly form ranks.

In their hearts they believed: so long as the King of Wei was here, victory was certain!

With a rolling thunder of war drums, the sons of good families from the six commanderies began to move. Seeing that Diwu Lun's formation was not yet complete, they would launch a probing attack!

A detachment of over a thousand riders broke from the formation and charged at an angle toward the edge of the Wei army's right wing. Hooves flew past, splashing up snow and mud, and the whole Zhou Plain seemed to tremble faintly.

The war drums of the six commanderies shook the very earth as they came!