Chapter 383: The Long Wall

After leading five thousand Bing Province troops west out of Fushi County in Shang Commandery, Geng Yan could clearly see the landscape around him change dramatically.

Though Fushi County (Feathered Forest Guard) was not far from the desert, farming and herding still coexisted there; one could occasionally glimpse hamlet fields, streams trickling through the loess gullies, and wild peach trees beginning to bear fruit on the hillsides. The roadside vegetation also grew with fierce vitality — willows with glossy green leaves and long, trailing branches that now and then brushed the path...

Yet after a single day's march, they had fully entered a desolate wasteland. The graceful willows vanished from the roadside; great bare patches of loess appeared on the hills, and the grass grew sparse and thin.

It was as if they had crossed a dividing line — within it, rain fell ten times a year; beyond it, two or three times was already fortunate.

Yellow earth and wild scrub stretched boundless to the horizon, without even high mountains or deep ravines to bar the way. Only after marching two or three days across this vast wilderness, harried by parching heat and thirst, could the great army find a small stream or lake with lush water and grass where men and horses could rest and replenish.

Such places were invariably fortified with strongholds. This one, for instance, was called "Xionggui Fortress." In Han times, a Xionggui Commandant had been stationed here, but with the collapse of the Xin Dynasty and the chaos along the borders, the soldiers had either fled home or turned bandit. The forts and outposts were nearly all abandoned, leaving only the lonely beacon-tower bastions standing in solitude.

With no post stations or relay lodges, naturally there was no one to cook for them. Fortunately, before the army set out, a first batch of "roast flour" had been sent from Guanzhong, packed in long sacks that could be slung across a horse's back. It required no cooking — eaten straight with water, torn dried meat chewed alongside it, and that was a meal.

The common soldiers could stomach it, but Geng Yan's younger brother Geng Guo was finding it hard to endure. Touching his cracked lips, he once again proposed to his elder brother: "Brother, you abandoned several counties in Xihe Commandery, requesting only that Shang Commandery Governor Ma Yuan send relief and hold the commandery seat. Yet you chose to go west to rescue New Qinzhong. Even though that is the King of Wei's place of origin, with many old followers, and the Marquis of Fuping, Zhang Chun, is treated with great courtesy — in guarding one place at the expense of another, haven't you gone too far?"

"You think I am currying favor with the King and his old followers?"

Geng Yan laughed in spite of himself. Pointing at the long stretch of wall to the south of the road, he asked, "Do you know what that is?"

"The Long Wall."

This Long Wall was built of large stacked stones, the gaps between them filled with loess. Over the long years, the loess had been scoured away by the wind, and many sections of wall had collapsed — the beacon towers were the most severely ruined.

"Which Long Wall, and built when?"

Geng Guo could not answer. There were too many Long Walls north of the frontier — from the Warring States Qin and Zhao to the Han, one after another had been built. Who could keep them straight?

"It is the Long Wall of King Zhao of Qin."

Geng Yan said, "This is one of the more southerly Long Walls. Do you know which is the northernmost?"

Geng Guo replied, "It should be the Long Wall built in the time of Emperor Wu of Han. I have heard it encloses nearly all of the Yin Mountains..."

The Han-era Long Wall may be called the "Outer Long Wall," while the Long Wall of King Zhao of Qin is the "Inner Long Wall." The First Emperor of Qin's Ten-Thousand-Li Long Wall lies between them.

The land between the Inner and Outer Long Walls is the territory contested back and forth by farmer and herder.

"In the Warring States period, there were the Baiyang, Loufan, and Yiqu. After Qin destroyed the six states, the First Emperor sent Meng Tian with a host of one hundred thousand north to strike the Hu and Rong, seizing all the lands south of the river. Following the river as a moat, he built forty-four county seats overlooking it and moved convicts and garrison troops to fill them."

"Later, at the end of Qin, the Central Lands fell into turmoil; Chu and Han contended for supremacy. The Xiongnu Modu Chanyu swept south and made the Inner Long Wall the border with the Central Lands."

"It was not until the time of Emperor Wu of Han that the lands south of the river were retaken and the frontier pushed north to the Outer Long Wall."

Geng Yan said, "The situation under Heaven today closely resembles the Chu-Han era. The Xiongnu, aided by the Hu-Han Lu Fang, have seized the chance to push south. Even if the Outer Long Wall cannot be held, this line of the Inner Long Wall must not be lost!"

The eastern end of the Inner Long Wall was Pingding, the capital of Xihe Commandery. That was why Geng Yan could abandon several counties in Xihe Commandery, but Pingding had to be defended to the death.

The western end of the Inner Long Wall, after a series of forts and outposts were built in Han times, had been extended to New Qinzhong!

"I know New Qinzhong is far from Shang Commandery — it takes a full ten days on horseback for a large army to reach it. But this road along the line of the Inner Long Wall, compared to the vast northern deserts or the towering southern mountains, is already a smooth path. If I can go, so can the raiders!"

This was why Geng Yan, without receiving orders from the court, was still determined to defend New Qinzhong to the death, or at the very least hold Fuping County: once the Xiongnu and Hu-Han occupied New Qinzhong at their leisure, it would be tantamount to sharing the defensive barrier of the Inner Long Wall with the State of Wei!

"The Xiongnu could use New Qinzhong as a foothold — pasture their horses and rest through spring and summer, then when the horses are fat in autumn, strike straight east along this road to raid Shang Commandery!"

By then, Shang Commandery would face pressure from both north and west — could it hold?

Worse still, the Xiongnu could ignore the forts in northern Shang Commandery entirely, cut straight across the wilderness, and push south along the loess gullies.

"At that point, Gaonu (Yan'an) and Diaoyin would become battlefields, and the beacon fires would reach Ganquan and Chang'an!"

Geng Yan understood cavalry well. The Xiongnu could endure hardship — wind, rain, and exhaustion, hunger and thirst could not stop them. The raiding range of the Hu horsemen far exceeded the imagination of the court ministers. If the Xiongnu could move through the Inner Long Wall as if entering no-man's-land, then Guanzhong could forget about restoring the people's livelihood.

"I received the King's great trust, with all military affairs of Bing Province entrusted to me. If that scene were to unfold, Geng Yan could only cut his own throat to atone!"

Geng Guo had nothing more to say, and the great army set out once more.

Geng Yan had been in Bing Province for nearly a quarter now. He had recruited large numbers of Bing Province men into the army. Living close to the frontier, they all knew at least a little riding; even if they could not be used directly as cavalry, they were more than adequate as makeshift "mounted infantry." Shang Commandery and Xihe also produced fine horses. Following the King of Wei's orders, regardless of whether they liked it or not, the horses were basically all equipped with double stirrups, which made the march considerably easier. The horses' hooves were shod with iron, drastically reducing the number of crippled or dead horses from hoof injuries — and even if a horse died, they not only cut off its meat but also pulled the horseshoes off to take with them.

On the seventh day of the march, an enormous silver mirror appeared ahead, stretching for dozens of li. Under the sunlight, the water's surface gleamed a crystalline, dazzling white. Around the lake, green grass spread like a carpet, and wildflowers grew in clusters...

This was the Huama Pool in Xuyan County (Yanchi County). Not only was there a salt lake, but the water and grass were lush, and the flavor of the Tan sheep was acclaimed as the finest in Bing Province. The great army was able to make its final resupply and at last eat a hot meal.

It was also here that Geng Yan learned the grievous news that Shanghe Commandant Xuan Biao, after being captured, had refused to surrender and was killed, as well as the latest movements of the Xiongnu and Hu-Han forces.

"Several thousand Xiongnu cavalry are besieging Fuping County alongside Lu Fang!"

Although Lu Fang and the Xiongnu had been besieging it for days, the defense of Fuping County seat was not, in truth, particularly desperate.

This city, built in the time of Emperor Wu of Han, was itself a fortress. Its walls were tall and thick; watchtowers stood densely within the city; the walls bristled with projecting bastions; and within the moat — fed by Yellow River water — there was even a low parapet wall for sheep and horses.

Nor was there any shortage of manpower. The total population of the New Qinzhong region was one hundred thousand. With the fall of the three western counties, a flood of refugees had crossed the river and gathered at Fuping, swelling the local numbers to a full fifty or sixty thousand. The able-bodied men alone could be mustered to twenty or thirty thousand — matching the total infantry and cavalry of the enemy.

The Hu soldiers had no large siege engines and could only rely on swarming attacks with human lives. After the latest assault had been broken off, hundreds of Lu Fang's troops lay strewn in the broad moat. Many had not even touched the sheep-and-horse wall, let alone the city itself.

With bridging assaults fruitless, Lu Fang changed tactics, requesting the Xiongnu horsemen to halt by the moat and shoot, attempting to suppress the defenders behind the sheep-and-horse wall with volley fire.

This method achieved some effect. Unable to bear the casualties, the defenders gradually withdrew into the city. But when Lu Fang, swelling with pride, ordered his troops to close in on the city, he realized he had been tricked.

Most of the arrows the Xiongnu had shot had been picked up. The bows on the city walls now exerted their power again, and the plunging fire forced the Hu soldiers to retreat once more to the outer perimeter.

Meng Ze, directing the defense from within the city, roared with laughter at the sight of the Hu soldiers scrambling back in disarray.

When the people of New Qinzhong were scattered across several counties, the Hu raiders could pick them off one by one. But when they concentrated together, with no way left to retreat, they could unleash tremendous energy!

"It is all thanks to Xuan Bohu personally covering the rear that so many common folk could cross the river." Meng Ze's thoughts turned again to Xuan Biao, who had been beheaded by the Hu after his sacrifice and his head brought to Fuping to demand surrender. A pang of pain struck his heart, and he put all his strength into his great bow, shooting a Hu man dead with a single arrow.

The people of the frontier were not like those of the interior, who had known peace too long. Most knew some martial skill and archery. They might not excel in open battle, but they were more than equal to defending a city. The only problems were that with so many mouths, grain was growing tight — they could only watch helplessly as the Hu horses freely devoured the unharvested wheat — and arrows were also running short.

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"Fortunately, Lord Zhang's fortified manor is sharing the burden with us."

Watching Lu Fang's army abandon the assault on Fuping County, Meng Ze did not feel relief; instead, he grew worried for the safety of Zhang Chun and his family.

The battle at Fuping City was a defense at the outer perimeter, but at the Zhang family fortified manor, it was close-quarters combat.

Because too many people had flooded in, Zhang Chun proposed sending all the old, weak, women, and children to Fuping City, while three thousand able-bodied men were concentrated in his family's fortified manor. The old Marquis stayed behind with his tenants and retainers to hold it.

The Zhang family's fortified manor was even sturdier than those built by the local magnates of Guanzhong. Its walls were taller than the county seat's, and its area many times larger than an ordinary fort. As a lineage passed down from the time of Zhang Tang and Zhang Anshi, the Zhang clan's wealth could only be described as "immense."

Within the Qin Canal, half the fields were Zhang family property, with over a thousand tenant retainers, many of them specially trained clan soldiers.

Seeing that Fuping City was hard to take, Lu Fang had shifted his main force to the fortified manor. The gullies were filled in; the Hu soldiers raised ladders and swarmed the fort. But the Zhang manor's sturdiness far exceeded their imagination. Tenant soldiers and able-bodied men crowded the wall tops, and on the watchtowers there were even great yellow crossbows — weapons that brooked no argument.

After a full day of fierce assault, the fortified manor was battered and scarred, its four walls bristling with arrows, but Lu Fang had lost several hundred more men. Even if some attackers managed to reach the top by luck, the tenant soldiers would use every means to hurl the enemy back off the three-zhang-high walls: crossbows, dagger-axes and spears, even teeth and fists when they grappled together.

When the ant-like scaling failed, they switched to a direct assault on the gate. Hu cavalry still provided volleys from a distance to suppress the fort's ranged weapons, while Hu and Han soldiers carried great wooden rams and iron woodcutting axes and charged the fort gate. Rolling logs, stones, and rubble rained down on their heads, splitting scalps and drawing blood.

A whole cauldron of boiling water tipped over, scalding a Wuyuan man at the front of the charge until his face was a mass of bloody blisters. He fell to the ground screaming, his thick beard sloughing off like a pig waiting to be scraped.

Yet after paying countless casualties and finally hacking the gate open, they found the inside completely blocked with brick and stone — no way to enter at all.

A prolonged siege was useless too. The fort held everything it needed: a well, granaries, latrines, even vegetable plots. The grain stored in the cellars could feed three or four thousand people until autumn.

"All this was prepared for self-preservation in chaotic times. Now it is used to defend our ancestral home, fields, and the people of Fuping — that counts as putting it to proper use."

Zhang Chun had shed his usual old-scholar image. Today he wore his ancestral armor — the heirloom of his forefather Zhang Anshi, the Han Grand Marshal and General of Chariots and Cavalry, ranked second among the heroes of the Qilin Pavilion. It was polished to a gleam. As long as he did not mount the walls to serve as an archery target, wearing it while patrolling inside the fort to boost morale worked well enough.

"What if the Hu brigands stay and never leave?" The household steward was deeply worried. Much of the wheat outside had not been harvested in time — enough to feed the Hu troops for a long while. The people of New Qinzhong were more than capable of holding out, but slightly lacking for a counterattack. And no one knew whether the court at Chang'an would truly send troops a thousand li to their aid.

"They will come. They certainly will."

Recalling his two encounters with the King of Wei, Zhang Chun was utterly certain.

"This old man's judgment of character is not wrong. The King of Wei may be ruthless, but he is also one who remembers old ties. He knows that New Qinzhong is the key to keeping the enemy beyond the frontier, and he will never lightly abandon it."

"A hundred thousand people in New Qinzhong — if abandoned, they will fall into the Hu's hands as captives, or even be used by Lu Fang. But if they are preserved, their gratitude will make them the King of Wei's beacon-fire Great Wall!"

This was a crisis, but also an opportunity for the Zhang family. Zhang Chun knew that if he could hold Fuping for the King of Wei, he would be richly rewarded afterward.

"If we hold out, I may not necessarily get one of the Three Excellencies or Nine Ministers, but among the Three Solitaries, a place for our family is assured!"

Ever since the reign of Han Emperor Cheng, when their political struggle against Wang Mang's clan ended in defeat, Zhang Chun's family had been pushed out to this frontier state, stripped of nearly everything. How could he not feel some nostalgia for the former glory of the "Jin and Zhang" great houses? How could he not harbor some hope for the court at Chang'an? Whether his family could secure generations of wealth and rank in the State of Wei — it all depended on this one battle!

Just then, the retainers up on the fort walls burst into waves of cheering.

"Household master, the Hu are pulling back!"

When Zhang Chun climbed the watchtower and followed the direction the retainers were pointing, he saw that twenty li away, the great Hu encampment between Fuping county town and the Zhang fort was ablaze with thick, surging flames!

"The work of relief troops."

Without bothering to learn the actual cause, Zhang Chun declared it as fact. Before the many former Boar-Rush Braves inside the fort, he faced southeast, performed three prostrations with his head to the ground, and assumed an expression of an old man weeping with emotion: "The King of Wei has dispatched a great army to save his people!"

……

PS: Chapter 2 at 23:00.