Chapter 452: Tower Dive

The shepherd, whip in hand, stared dumbfounded as countless cavalrymen crossed the Zuli River. At their head rode a man bearing a striking five-colored banner, though wind and rain had faded it — the white stripe, stained by the northwestern dust, had turned a muddy yellow, and the red had become pink.

A general on a white horse rode straight over with a few attendants, his horse's coat likewise spattered with mud. Looking down from on high, he questioned the shepherd in a strange accent that mixed the dialects of the Five Tombs, Youzhou, and Bingzhou.

"Where can we find a stream to water our horses?"

The Zuli River was a typical bitter-water river of the great northwest, undrinkable for man or beast. To get water, one had to cross several mountain hollows and go to its tributaries.

The shepherd eyed the bows and blades hanging from the Bingzhou cavalrymen's saddles and gulped. Carefully shielding the scrawny flock behind him, he pointed out the right direction.

A commoner living in such a remote place did not even know whom Longyou was fighting. They did not look like Xiongnu, so it was best to cooperate obediently — as long as they did not find the cave kiln deep in the mountains and molest his wife and daughter.

The white-horse general nodded, his gaze fixed on the shepherd's four-legged property. He glanced back at his hungry, hollow-bellied troops, felt around his chest, found nothing, and merely asked his personal guard a question. A moment later, a small gold nugget was tossed down, landing at the shepherd's feet.

"Your sheep — this general will buy them all!"

The shepherd could only watch helplessly as the cavalrymen whooped and drove the flock away. Not until the dust raised by their horses' hooves had faded into the distance did he dare to carefully crouch down, pick up the gold nugget, and bite it — but his face showed no joy.

Gold was worth a great deal, but out in these barren mountains and remote wilds, where could he spend it? That flock of sheep was what his family relied on to survive the autumn and winter. How would they endure the days ahead?

Still, at least they had not simply taken his life outright — that was already better than Xiongnu raiders, or even the cavalry of the Longyou good families.

He merely raised his head and gazed anxiously at the gloomy clouds, then turned into a mountain gully that outsiders could hardly find and hurried toward home.

In Longyou, the sky was about to change!

The rider of the white horse was, of course, Geng Yan. This marching route had been carefully chosen by him: north of Xiao Pass, traveling west along the Yellow River, bypassing the north-south Long Mountains, then following the river valley carved by the Zuli River smoothly southward. This had once been a corridor the Xiongnu often used when raiding Longxi and Tianshui, but no foreign enemy had come this way in over a hundred years. The area had very few inhabitants, scarcely any county seats or rural townships, and Longyou, short on troops, simply could not spare men to defend it.

What was more, considering the limited supplies he could plunder along the way, Geng Yan had brought only a thousand-odd cavalry. The main force remained outside Xiao Pass, pinning down Niu Han.

"In the time of Emperor Wu of Han, he traveled to Yong, sacrificed at the Five Altars, then crossed Long, climbed Kongtong, went west to the Zuli River, and turned back. This place was his terminus."

From here southward, the land stretched flat for a thousand li. The Bingzhou cavalry galloped across the sands with the force of wind and rain. Since Longyou had no troops to garrison the river, there was nothing left to stop young General Geng.

It was early autumn in the seventh month. Though the river was brackish, there was some water and grass here and there around it, enough to fill the horses' bellies. The men subsisted on roasted flour, occasionally "buying" a flock of sheep from the locals for some meat, and pressed on until they neared Tianshui Commandery.

Although their ultimate target was Lueyang, the transit hub for Longyou's grain and troops, before heading there, Geng Yan intended to pay a visit somewhere first.

Geng Yan laughed. "General Li's hometown, Chengji County — also the old nest of the Wei clan. How can we pass by without entering?"

Several days later, when word came that Wei cavalry raiders had appeared around his home of Chengji, burning and plundering the village hamlets, Wei Ao was greatly shocked.

Although he had, for safety's sake, already moved the Western Han "capital" to Ji County on the south bank of the Wei River — where the puppets Liu Ying, Liu Xin, and even Wei Ao's own two sons were kept — Chengji still held the Wei clan's ancestral graves, old mansions, and estate after estate. This sudden ill tidings struck Wei Ao as if someone had dealt him a heavy blow to the gut. Clutching his stomach, he slumped back against his armrest table.

"Could Xiao Pass have fallen?" That was Wei Ao's first reaction. He immediately sent men to demand an accounting from Niu Han, only to receive the reply: "The pass is intact and secure; absolutely nothing is amiss."

The origin of those Wei cavalrymen could thus be basically confirmed: they had bypassed the Long Mountains and come by a roundabout route.

Though the county seat of Chengji still held, all the surrounding rural townships had been occupied. Wei Ao was quite anxious, but he had already sent the two batches of troops from Lueyang city — one to besiege Wan Xiu, the other to resist Diwu Lun's general offensive at Long Slope — and had hardly any soldiers left at his side.

"Our cavalry is still south of Xiao Pass. Why not match cavalry with cavalry?"

The officers in Chengji made this proposal, but those four thousand cavalry were Longyou's last mobile force. They were entirely relied upon to watch the various low, narrow passes near Xiao Pass to prevent the Wei army from crossing. Once dispatched, not a single soldier would remain. Thus Wei Ao hesitated greatly.

"General, the enemy has already smashed into the ancestral hall and begun destroying the spirit tablets of our forebears. What use are the hunting hounds still guarding outside the gate?"

In the end, Wei Ao could not bear to part with the pots and jars of his household. He gave the order to dispatch the cavalry to Chengji for relief, with orders to annihilate the Wei horsemen at all costs!

However, as soon as the Longyou good-family cavalry had been transferred away, leaving too few men to watch the many small paths impassable to large armies, a major disaster immediately occurred!

"General, the grain convoy was ambushed near Lueyang — it's the Wei army! Perhaps two or three thousand men."

Wei Ao was horrified. What of Longyou's much-vaunted natural defenses of mountain and river? How had it suddenly sprung leaks like a sieve? Wan Xiu was the first, Geng Yan the second — who was this now?

The one who had come was, naturally, Wu Han, Wu Ziyi. The Wei army's generals all seemed capable of tower-diving for a gank.

Only three or four thousand troops remained at Lueyang, half of whom had been sent to escort grain and were scattered in the ambush. Wei Ao was instantly terrified, yet for a moment he did not know whom to recall to save himself, and felt something close to despair.

He had hoped that by winning a few battles and dragging the war into winter, he would have enough capital to negotiate with Diwu Lun. Who could have foreseen that the more he fought, the more he lost? Though the situation had not yet completely collapsed, Wei Ao was already exhausted in body and spirit.

So this was how hard it was to be an independent feudal lord, carving out a domain of one's own.

Somewhere deep inside, Wei Ao even felt dejected enough to think of simply surrendering and being done with it, but his last shred of dignity made him grit his teeth. "Recall the cavalry!"

He had thought it through. Xiao Pass and Long Slope were still holding back the main Wei force; what had slipped through were merely small detachments. He could not afford to attend to one thing and lose another. In any case, the cavalry had already spent several days chasing Wei horsemen in circles to the west and still had not managed to annihilate them. Better to pull them back first and deal with the enemy near Lueyang!

Wu Han, for his part, was quite straightforward. He had led two thousand men, felling trees and opening a path, crossing over from Fanxu Pass. As it happened, the Longyou cavalry had just been shifted west to support Chengji, allowing Wu Han to march south smoothly and reach the vicinity of Lueyang. He knew that with his small, severely straggling force, he could not possibly take a fortified city, so he first chose to harass the main road near a rural township called "Jiequan Station," abbreviated as Jieting.

Though Wu Han had few men, his courage was great. He raided two grain convoys around Lueyang and plundered several village hamlets. Knowing he was deep in enemy territory, when his scouts reported that enemy patrols in the area were growing more frequent, he began to think of a way out.

Whether Lueyang or Jieting, the cities had garrisons and were hard to assault. Having fought his way in, retreating would be a poor bargain. Wu Han fixed his gaze instead on the bare, bald mountain south of Jieting.

"What mountain is this?" Wu Han had his men interrogate a prisoner.

"South Mountain."

The layout of Jieting was exactly like a folding fan of the sort used in the palace of Emperor Wu. Two rivers converged at the valley mouth, forming a small alluvial fan plain. Jieting city sat at the western end of this alluvial fan, and the handle of the entire fan lay squarely on South Mountain.

South Mountain's terrain was highly distinctive. The locals also called it the Hundred-Mu Plateau. Its summit was a broad, flat platform, actually far larger than a hundred mu. Except for its southern face, which was a gentle, sloping incline, the north, east, and west sides were all exceedingly steep cliffs.

Gazing at the precipitous South Mountain, Wu Han burst out laughing.

"As long as we ascend the mountain and set camp on the Hundred-Mu Plateau, the Longyou cavalry can do nothing to me."

As far as Wu Han knew, Jing Dan had relied on terrain just like this — the Tong Plateau — to block the Greenwood pincer attack. This place was the only usable obstacle within a hundred li in any direction. Wu Han was also well-versed in cavalry warfare and knew that on open, level ground, a mere two thousand infantrymen facing a charge by the Longyou good families would likely be a nightmare of a rout.

Thus, he absolutely had to seek out perilous terrain.

But there was one problem, which Wu Han's subordinates discovered after circling the area and promptly reported to him.

"General, on South Mountain — there is no water source!"

The exhausted Longyou good-family cavalry had gone to Chengji to catch young Geng, but thanks to his mobility and agility, they had grasped at empty air, merely running two round trips between Chengji and Lueyang.

With their assistance, Wei Ao's courage swelled somewhat. He then led a combined force of six thousand infantry and cavalry and advanced toward Jieting's South Mountain — this was all the troops he could muster. He had to deal with this wild boar that had crashed through his fence! Whether he could hold out until the Shu army arrived, drag the war into winter, and finally rely on General Winter to force Diwu Lun back — it all depended on this one battle!

When they discovered that this Wei force had made a temporary camp on the mountain and was sustaining itself on plundered grain, the Longyou generals were overjoyed. They proposed: "These men, an isolated force deep in our territory, have abandoned level ground to ascend the mountain, all to hold fast and wait for Diwu Lun to break through Long Pass."

"But the enemy commander is a fool. Even if he has looted enough grain to last several days, here atop Jieting's South Mountain is a barren place where grass and trees barely grow, and there is absolutely no water source! Digging wells is useless too."

"The Wei army relies entirely on the river at the mountain's base for drinking water. If we simply cut off their water-drawing route and surround the southern slope, then within a few days, once they've drunk even their own piss dry, the Wei troops will collapse on their own!"

Wei Ao nodded. After letting his troops rest briefly, he began ordering men to close in on the riverbank and drive off the Wei soldiers at the water's edge. The Wei troops, for their part, did not even counterattack, but obediently fled back up the mountain, allowing the Longyou soldiers to seize the shallow, narrow stream.

Yet up on the mountain, Wu Han broke into a grin!

Cut off the water route? For someone bent on holing up on a hilltop, that would certainly work — but against Wu Han, it's utterly useless!

Wei Ao assumed that Wu Han had abandoned the water and climbed the mountain only to rely on favorable terrain, dig in, and wait for reinforcements.

But in Wu Han's lexicon, the word "defense" has never existed. Like Geng Bozhao, his face is written all over with attack — aggression fierce as fire!

Wu Han ordered the last bit of water brought up the mountain to be distributed among the two thousand soldiers. Each man got only a few mouthfuls — in this sweltering heat, barely enough to quench their thirst for a moment.

"Gentlemen!"

"Do you want water?"

Wu Han drew his saber and pointed down the mountain — at the Long troops who thought they had cut off the Wei army's water route and were now smugly splashing and flaunting by the waterside, and at Wei Ao's great banner, which had been lured out of Lüeyang.

"Come — follow old Wu down there, slit those bastards' throats, and drink your fill from the enemy's blood!"

The men who could cross mountains and ridges with Wu Han to reach this place were naturally all fierce and battle-hardened. Now the sun blazed hot — that sip of water just now was nowhere near enough, and sooner or later their throats would be parched raw. The soldiers were desperate too. Gritting their teeth, they donned their light armor and began rapidly forming ranks on the gentler slope of the southern peak.

This was exactly the effect Wu Han wanted.

"Whether the enemy comes mounted or on foot — the moment they dare to encircle the mountain and cut off our water, I will lead the army charging down and smash them in one blow. Once their main force is routed, whether it's Jieting, Lüeyang, or even Wei Ao's head — won't they all be mine for the taking?"

Throw them onto death ground and they will survive; plunge them into mortal peril and they will live. In ancient times, Han Xin fought with his back to the river — now it falls to Wu Ziyi, rough outside but shrewd within, to fight a…

"Battle with the water cut off!"

…

PS: A bit late — I'm away at a meeting in another city today, so only one chapter.