Chapter 498: Intercepting Reinforcements

When Dong Xuan was young and studying law in Dingtao, his teacher told him a strange story about rats.

In Dingtao there was a rich man born in a Rat year. A fangshi told him he must never harm a rat's life, so the rich man kept no cats or dogs and strictly forbade servants from striking rats. In his granaries and kitchens, rats came and went as they pleased, unmolested.

Over the years, the rats in his house bred into a plague. Gorged all day and free from harm, they moved in swarms in broad daylight, unafraid of people. At night they gnawed and fought viciously, until not a single item in the house remained intact. Every garment on the rack was chewed full of holes. As for gnawing an infant's cheek or frightening guests so badly they dared not enter — such incidents were beyond counting.

Eventually the family moved away, and the house changed hands. The rats behaved exactly as before. The new master was a ruthless man. He borrowed five or six civet cats, shut the doors, flooded the rat holes with water, and hired servants to net those that fled. The dead rats piled up like a small hill. They were carted off and dumped in a remote place — the stench took months to fade...

When they heard this story as young men, they naturally clapped and cheered. Exterminating rats is right and proper — had they not heard of Zhang Tang, who arraigned a rat? Those who study the law are born hating these little creatures. But now, replace the rats in this story with people — what then?

The slaughter lasted a day and a night. The small city, built as a floodgate spillway, was already submerged by the water channeled in. More than half the Red Eyebrows drowned on the spot. When the water receded, they lay piled like mountains of drowned rat corpses, sunk in the mud, bellies bloated. Even those who by luck survived the moment and tried to flee when the water gate reopened were slaughtered to the last man by the waiting soldiers.

This harrowing scene brought acute distress even to the battle-hardened veterans of the Boar-Rush Braves — let alone the new recruits barely a year in service, whose faces all turned ashen.

Dong Xuan had stood iron-faced and merciless atop the city wall, but the moment he turned away, he vomited too. He had heard that some people react to killing for the first time, yet he had overseen the beheading of dozens, even hundreds, and personally executed those who shrank from battle — never once had he felt this. This time was different. He vomited violently and for two days could hardly stomach a single grain of rice.

"The ancients said: no calamity is greater than killing those who have surrendered. Dong Xuan's crime is grave indeed."

So he told himself. Li Guang merely lured a few hundred surrendered Qiang into a trap and killed them, and for that he was denied a fief his whole life. Bai Qi, a famed general of his age, ended by cutting his own throat at Duyou — a miserable end. His own crime fell somewhere between Qi and Guang. What misfortune would it bring down upon him?

But in chaotic times, harsh measures must be applied — this was the principle Dong Xuan had always held. The officials and powerful families who oppressed the common people of Qingzhou and Yanzhou under Han and Xin alike were indeed giant rats, but the Red Eyebrows who rose in resistance had themselves become a rampaging horde, devouring Yanzhou's grain, gnawing prosperous Dingtao to ruin, spreading poison across the land.

And so the rat plague left by the former dynasty could only be handed to the next dynasty to exterminate.

He firmly believed in Zichan's discourse on governing with leniency or severity: only the virtuous can win the people with leniency; for the rest, nothing surpasses severity. His Majesty the Emperor was lenient and benevolent — therefore someone had to correct that with severity!

But would this alone truly end the "rat plague"? Would it not unite the surviving "vermin" in shared hatred, driving even those who might have surrendered to desperate ends?

He had no leisure to consider long-term consequences. Dong Xuan could only fix his gaze on the immediate: he absolutely must not let the "swarm of rats" cross the Ji River and appear behind Ma Yuan and Diwu Lun! That would increase the pressure on the decisive battle.

Otherwise, who would end up the captive was far from certain.

When Dong Xuan reappeared before the men, his already gaunt face looked even more skeletal. Everyone kept their distance from him — who would not fear a man who could order the massacre of ten thousand of his own kind?

Dong Xuan merely saluted Zhao Pang, who had thoroughly washed his hands of all responsibility: "Assistant General, you need only leave a thousand men in Dingtao to help me and the local people dispose of the corpses."

"The remaining seven thousand you may take to the banks of the Ji River. Do everything in your power to stop the bandits from Suiyang from entering the He-Ji region. Do not let General Ma be attacked from front and rear!"

"Today I have killed ten thousand, but only His Majesty and General Ma can defeat the Red Eyebrows in one stroke — only by halting war through war can a hundred thousand, a million lives be saved!"

At the other end, after leaving Dingtao, Ma Yuan led his thirty thousand troops to a place near Yuanju County called Boiled-Date City.

The name sounded odd, but it had a grand origin. Legend said that during the Qin-Han transition, the Penglai immortal Anqi Sheng obtained immortal dates as big as melons. He came here, set up an altar, and boiled them. They took three full days to cook, and their fragrance wafted for ten li. Those who smelled it — the dead revived, the sick rose from their beds. And those who ate them directly? They ascended to heaven in broad daylight alongside Anqi Sheng. Hence the place was named "Boiled-Date."

But the Boiled-Date City of today held not a trace of immortal aura — only the reek of ghosts and malice.

The land Ma Yuan's great army passed through had once been prosperous under the Han, but after being ravaged back and forth by floods, soldiers, and bandits, it had become a vast, tomb-studded wasteland. Occasionally, figures stirred among the dense, abandoned hamlets, but when seized and brought forward, they were so starved and emaciated, their appearance so ghastly, they seemed like hungry ghosts.

Wei army scouts struggled through this depopulated zone, maintaining contact between the various forces. From the last courier out of the main camp, Ma Yuan learned that Diwu Lun had encountered a detached Red Eyebrow force at Chuqiu, north of the Pu River. The two sides were probing and skirmishing — and that place was only one hundred twenty li from Boiled-Date City!

When Gai Yan heard this, he could not help worrying. The Emperor's forces — Jizhou troops, Sanhe troops, and the Imperial Guard Division combined — numbered no more than fifty thousand, while the two Red Eyebrow hordes surging toward them were at least three times that number.

"If the Red Eyebrows fight His Majesty at Chuqiu, their defeat is already sealed." Ma Yuan, however, understood the Emperor well. "His Majesty is cautious and steady in warfare, favoring orthodox engagements. Once he digs in at Chuqiu, the Red Eyebrows can forget about breaking through solid ramparts and strong fortifications."

"Even the mighty Copper Horses and Liu Ziyu suffered grievously at Diwu Lun's hands. Today will be the same. We need only wait for Ma Yuan to arrive and strike the fatal blow from behind, and the battle will be over."

But could it truly be that easy?

After they marched north out of Boiled-Date City, scouts reported back that a massive Red Eyebrow force, divided into dozens of companies, was closing in from the Leize Marsh to the northeast. They had already clashed with the scout detachments.

"From that direction, it must be the Red Eyebrow flanking force — the Fifth Lord, Yang Yin."

Hearing that this man was leading the troops, everyone from Gai Yan down to the assistant generals and colonels felt contempt. "This man has been defeated by the General twice, at Aocang and Dingtao. His remaining troops number less than thirty thousand — roughly equal to our own — and he still dares to attack?"

"Maybe after defeating Dong Xian, he's recovered a bit of confidence and is rushing to offer his head."

Their tongues were merciless — clearly, too many victories had made them arrogant. But Ma Yuan frowned.

If they met the Red Eyebrows at a fixed position, whether they attacked and the enemy defended or vice versa, fighting a positional battle, Ma Yuan naturally had nothing to fear.

But right now they were on the march. In battle, an army typically deploys in horizontal lines to spread out its formation and engage the enemy. On the march, however, it moves in columns. His force of thirty thousand, even marching on three parallel roads, would stretch for several li.

Ma Yuan had fought the Red Eyebrows and the Chengtouzi Lu many times and knew they loved surprise attacks and meeting engagements — column against column. Because on the march, even the elite armored troops of the Wei army had to strip off their armor and pile it onto the baggage carts pulled by army mules and horses. Otherwise, marching over a hundred li in full armor would exhaust even a champion like Meng Ben to death, let alone leave them fit to fight upon arrival.

When a meeting engagement occurred, if the Wei troops had no time to don their armor, their equipment advantage would be neutralized.

And another obvious fact was this: the Red Eyebrow army marched faster than the Wei army. As long as they were not laden with large quantities of plunder, the Red Eyebrows, forever on the move, were professionals at this. Once they latched on, shaking them off by speed was nearly impossible. Back in Qinghe and Xindu commanderies, the Wei army's grain convoys had been harassed by the Chengtouzi Lu in exactly this way until they were dazed and furious — and when they gave chase in rage, they suffered badly for it.

"Why not have the Yuyang lancers cover the rear?" someone proposed. Using the cavalry's mobility advantage, they could spread out across several dozen li behind the main army, blocking Yang Yin so that Ma Yuan and the main force could hurry to Chuqiu without distraction.

Ma Yuan, however, made the opposite judgment. "If the Yuyang lancers can join the decisive battle, their effect will be far greater than merely holding off thirty thousand rabble. And if I do not destroy this enemy force dogging our heels, once it too reaches Chuqiu, it will become another variable."

He summoned Gai Yan over. "Chuqiu is barely over a hundred li from here. Infantry can reach it in three days; cavalry, at full speed, can make it in a single day! In Hebei, Wu Ziyan won great merit with the Yuyang cavalry. Today is likewise the day you, Juqing, shall be enfeoffed. Do your utmost!"

Gai Yan accepted the order. "And what of the Commandant? Yang Yin's Red Eyebrow force numbers roughly the same as ours. Without the cavalry, how does the Commandant intend to destroy him?"

"A column may not easily deploy for battle, but it has one advantage."

Ma Yuan laughed heartily. "Like the serpent of Mount Chang — with a small turn at the head, we can coil around this Red Eyebrow force and trap them completely. Then we open wide our jaws and swallow the lot in a single gulp!"

On this campaign, the Yuyang lancers' spare horses had been used up during the rush from Youzhou to the Central Plains. Following Ma Yuan to Chuqiu, apart from a few battalions rotated out as vanguard and scouts, the rest of the men advanced on their own two feet, unwilling even to load grain onto their warhorses.

Only after receiving orders for independent action did Gai Yan order his men to mount, but even then they held back their speed, moving at a walk. He planned to cover the remaining hundred li in a day and a half, so that when the Yuyang lancers reached the battlefield, their warhorses would still have the strength for one charge!

At the great battle of Aocang, the Yuyang lancers had been kept in Henei. With only Gai Yan and a few dozen riders, they had achieved miraculous results and nearly slain Yang Yin. Now they had three thousand brothers here — even if the enemy numbered over a hundred thousand, what was there to fear?

Gai Yan detailed only one battalion to press ahead at a hundred li per day and reconnoiter the situation ahead.

The He-Ji region was now shrouded as if in a dense fog. The enemy's disposition was only a blur, impossible to see clearly. Intelligence was everything! The most urgent task was to clarify the battle situation at Chuqiu. Had fighting broken out? How many troops did the Red Eyebrows have in total? Where was Fan Chong? Everything was unknown.

After leaving Boiled-Date City, the Yuyang lancers rode straight north at speed. But the further they went, the more Gai Yan sensed something was wrong!

Because all along the way, they were running into Red Eyebrow troops with increasing frequency!

And these were not scattered stragglers passing through, nor routed remnants of a defeated force. On sighting cavalry, they actually surged forward bravely to give chase.

The scout company fought as they retreated, nearly getting encircled by another Red Eyebrow detachment that had swung around. After barely extracting themselves, they discovered even more Red Eyebrows marching across the great He-Ji plain, straining every sinew as they pressed south.

The riders had lost some comrades and also captured a few prisoners. Under interrogation, Gai Yan learned from their mouths a piece of news that made his blood run cold.

"Our earlier intelligence was wrong."

"Fan Chong sent only a single ten-thousand-man camp toward Chuqiu to tie up His Majesty the Emperor."

"His main force, after breaking camp, suddenly changed direction. They turned south, crossed the Pu River, and right now, a hundred thousand strong, are marching straight toward Boiled-Date City!"

"Damn."

Gai Yan's eyes widened in sudden understanding: "Fan Chong — he's going to strike Commandant Ma!"

……

The Red Eyebrow Army could not afford to maintain cavalry, that luxury of an arms race, but they did have a handful of mounted scouts.

A Red Eyebrow fighter with a small banner strapped to his back rode a gaunt, scrawny packhorse. Heedless of its labored, wheezing breath, he lashed and drove it on, leaping a ditch at full gallop, threading through column after column of trudging comrades, until at last he reached the central army — whose very existence was proclaimed by nothing more than a patched rag of a flag.

After all these years, Fan Chong still dressed no differently from an ordinary soldier. Like the banner overhead, his clothes were riddled with holes and patches. He was squatting on the ground with the others in a circle, eating a crude meal from a potsherd he had picked up at hand.

"Grand Duke!"

The Red Eyebrow scout prostrated himself before Fan Chong: "Ma Yuan is indeed marching north. At this moment, the Fifth Duke has him tied down at Boiled Jujube City."

"Also, the Wei cavalry escort left Boiled Jujube and headed north, but now they have turned around and are moving south."

Fan Chong did not pause to spit out his food — he was loath to waste the grain in his mouth. Chewing as he spoke, his voice muffled: "What of Xu Xuan from Suiyang? Where has he reached?"

"Too far away — we haven't made contact. No word."

Unlike the Wei army, which could just barely manage point-to-point communications, the Red Eyebrows fought in a rather muddled fashion, relying mostly on each man's own wits. But in this modest stretch of land between the Ji and the He, the Red Eyebrows had campaigned back and forth many times and knew every path like the back of their hand — they would not lose their way. At worst, the agreed rendezvous might be off by a month or so. That was all…

Fan Chong had originally intended to rush north and join Xie Lu in striking Diwu Lun, seeing that as the decisive stroke to win the battle. But he was still weighing the choice, for it would determine final victory or defeat.

Even after the host of a hundred thousand had struck camp, Fan Chong was still hesitating. He remembered what Chengtou Zilu had said: Diwu Lun often used himself as bait, luring the enemy into launching an all-out assault — when in truth it was a trap. What about this time?

Moreover, this man was skilled at both field battle and static defense. If they threw several times his number at him, they might not be able to crack him in just a few short days. And Fan Chong reckoned that even if Xu Xuan broke through the Dingtao defense line and joined forces with Yang Yin, together they would probably still not be enough for Ma Yuan to mop up…

So at the very last moment, Fan Chong changed his mind.

"Anyway, your father here is not walking into a battlefield Diwu Lun has already laid out."

"Let Xie Lu keep Diwu Lun tied down. We turn around and strike Ma Yuan!"

……

According to the original plan, Diwu Lun had intended to use himself as bait, drawing the Red Eyebrow main force to pounce on Chuqiu. Once the battlefield was fixed, Ma Yuan, Zheng Tong, and the other forces would all converge, and they could fight the kind of positional battle the Wei army was thoroughly familiar with.

In reality, however, the course of battle is never something a single commander can fully control. At this very moment, for instance, Diwu Lun had already led his main army away from Chuqiu, the prearranged decisive battlefield, and had run several dozen li south to the banks of the Pu River.

There was no helping it. Xie Lu's contingent played to the bandit's strength: they refused to stand and fight. Discovering that the Wei army was larger than expected, they fought while retreating. Unlike Aocang, with its mountains, rivers, and narrow defiles, this was a great plain — the Red Eyebrows had too many places to run. Although several thousand were annihilated, Xie Lu still managed to shift tens of thousands of men southward and cross the Pu River before the Wei army could strike.

Fortunately, there were plenty of backup plans. Diwu Lun sifted through Plans B and C, both of which had envisioned a scenario where the Red Eyebrows fled without a fight. Plan B was to force a crossing of the Pu and, coordinating with Zheng Tong's force, which was nearing the battlefield, first smash Xie Lu.

Plan C was to encamp by the riverbank, wait for Fan Chong to bring up the Red Eyebrow main force, then stall and drag things out in a standoff. At the same time, they would dam the upper reaches of the Pu, feign a forced river crossing and a frontal assault, then stage a false rout to lure the Red Eyebrows into pursuit — repeating the classic stratagem of the Battle of the Wei River…

But while they were still deliberating, a Yuyang shock cavalryman came galloping up in haste and reported a massive shift in the war to Diwu Lun.

"What? Fan Chong did not head north — he went south, aiming to strike the Commandant?"

Diwu Lun was momentarily speechless, but he quickly accepted it.

The Red Eyebrows often acted on blind impulse in battle and were fond of making last-minute decisions. Where they would go next, whom they would hit — even they themselves did not know. It would be a miracle if an opponent guessed it perfectly.

And if one were to rank the realm's faction leaders most adept at wielding troops, Wu Han and Liu Xiu counted as one, Diwu Lun counted as another. Fan Chong, though he had never read a book and knew no military doctrine, commanding purely by instinct, could still rank among the top three. Come to think of it, the three men had this in common: during the revolt against Wang Mang, facing the Xin armies, each had won a great victory with the few against the many.

Since last winter, the Red Eyebrows and the Wei army had been angling for each other across the Central Plains, but on the whole, the Red Eyebrows had come off worse. Whether it was Chengtou Zilu entering Hebei or Fan Chong laying his schemes between the He and the Ji, Diwu Lun had seen through them all. Using a single pontoon bridge to make fools of the Red Eyebrows, he had come to feel that Fan Chong was nothing special after all.

Who could say whether this was Fan Chong's spur-of-the-moment decision — a stroke of genius — or just a blind cat stumbling upon a dead rat? Perhaps this was what they meant by "Heaven does not disappoint the man who strains his heart." After nearly half a year of flailing about, this "Yuan" — he really had managed to strike it!

At this sudden news, even a man as steady as Chancellor of the Left Geng Chun was taken aback: "Commandant Ma's force is no more than thirty thousand foot soldiers."

"Right now he is locked in battle with Yang Yin. If Fan Chong joins in as well, the Red Eyebrows will effectively be fighting four against one!"

"And if Xu Xuan's Suiyang force breaks through the Dingtao defense line and strikes Wenyuan from the rear, it will be five against one!"

"Even if Gai Juqing turns the Yuyang shock cavalry around and races to the rescue, it will be a drop in the bucket."

Not that Ma Yuan had never fought a battle with such desperate odds before — but to maneuver against four or five times his number on a plain with no defensible terrain, and very likely in a shape where columns enveloped and dogged him, enduring the impact of over a hundred thousand Red Eyebrows… no matter how you looked at it, disaster loomed!

Inside the command post, lieutenant generals, colonels, staff officers, and palace gentlemen all broke out in cold sweat. Giant Fan's move of heading south when they expected north had truly dazzled them.

"I beg leave to race to the rescue!" General of Tiger Might Zhang Zong pleaded. But his cry only made the tent more clamorous. Xie Lu's contingent was still on the south bank of the Pu. They were no longer retreating now — they must have received Fan Chong's explicit instructions and were fixedly watching the Pu. To head south? They would first have to break through them.

That meant they would not only have to cross the river and strike the enemy, but also race a hundred li to engage over a hundred thousand Red Eyebrows in battle. Could the troops manage it? Was there still time? Could Ma Yuan hold out?

Countless questions surfaced. As everyone trembled with dread and anxiety, it was Diwu Lun who kept his grip on the larger situation. He merely put on a faint, indifferent smile.

"Exactly as I foresaw!"

He directed Embroidered Uniform Commandant Zhang Yu: "Zhang Yu, read Plan D aloud for everyone."

What — there was a Plan D? The men looked at one another in bewilderment. Zhang Yu acknowledged the order. He detested Wu Han, but he was quite close with Ma Yuan, and at this moment his concern clouded his judgment. So His Majesty had already anticipated this — what had he been fretting about…

But when he took up Diwu Lun's so-called "Plan D" and stole a glance at it, he froze.

Inside was only a single sheet of yellow rattan paper — completely blank.

At this hesitation, Diwu Lun grew impatient and cursed: "You little whelp, so flustered you've lost your wits? Hand the plan up here — I'll say it myself!"

Zhang Yu was quick on his feet. He at once feigned a choked sob and delivered that "Plan D" into Diwu Lun's hands.

"Should Fan Chong ignore the north and march south instead, his intent must be to intercept Commandant Ma. After destroying one of our divisions, he could then withdraw at his leisure into the Liang and Chen territories."

Diwu Lun glanced at the blank paper, then glared around the tent at his assembled officers and instructed them: "If that is the case, the site of the decisive battle must change — from Chuqiu and the Pu River to Boiled Jujube City!"

He suddenly laughed aloud: "Ever since we raised our troops — whether it was the Battle of the Great River or the Hebei campaign —"

"time and again it has been Wenyuan racing a thousand li to rescue me."

"This time, it is my turn to rescue Wenyuan!"

That's right — it was simply changing from the father-in-law saving the son-in-law to the son-in-law saving the father-in-law.

Though his heart was filled with boundless worry, the corners of Diwu Lun's mouth still curved into a smile of absolute confidence.

"Gentlemen — first, seize the Pu River. Then, with the keen edge of a great victory, drive south, coordinate with Wenyuan, and crush Fan Chong in a pincer."

At this juncture, the one thing that must not fall was the soldiers' morale!

This single surge of spirit — even if his arm were broken, he would have to grind his teeth to splinters and swallow them. He must strike!

"Everything is going according to plan!"

……

PS: Only one chapter today.