Chapter 500: Wild Punches Beat the Old Master to Death

The Wei troops defending the Ji River, having suffered casualties as high as one in ten, finally endured until the sky brightened fully. Only then did Dong Xuan of Dingtao City open the gates as promised, allowing them to retreat at last, and thereby buying the Red Eyebrow Army an extra half day's delay.

By the time Xu Xuan crossed the Ji River, it was already the afternoon of the next day. He felt no joy at overcoming the perilous obstacle. Looking around, he saw that due to insufficient supplies, the Red Eyebrow soldiers had nothing to eat after a bitter night of fighting; they had to search the pockets of dead Wei soldiers for parched flour to stave off hunger. Those unwilling to "feed the war with war" yet refusing to march on empty stomachs were catching fish in the river to boil soup, or scrounging for wild greens. Their speed advantage on the march was thus canceled out by their terrible supply situation.

The men were utterly exhausted after several days of hard fighting. When they pressed onward again, the march was basically a chaotic mess. The roads were muddy and difficult, and each ten-thousand-man camp became a tangled jumble on the line of march, some even coming to blows over the right-of-way.

"Word has come from Boiled Jujube City: Lord Fan is locked in a death struggle with Ma Yuan, and Diwu Lun is on the Pu River line, able to push south and reach the battlefield at any moment."

"But we here have fallen into chaos before even fighting."

The Red Eyebrows had always fought this way — no real discipline, often relying on sheer numbers and high morale, beating the old master with wild punches. When they faced the Xin army, the Greenwood men, or others with low morale, one flurry of wild swings and the enemy would collapse first.

"But this time, facing the Wei army, can we still win through chaos?"

On the other end of the battlefield, the man coordinating the Wei army's logistics was the Colonel-Director of Retainers, Dou Rong. The Emperor's orders were passed down layer by layer, with specific men assigned to execute every link. If the execution fell short, they could expect court-martial punishment!

The task of the Henei civilian laborers was to build supply stations along the route. They had been issued no armor or weapons; their only "arms" were the door planks they pushed along on deer carts.

Xiang Ziping's unit had not changed in number, but the faces in it had. Some men vanished as they walked, while unfamiliar faces muddle-headedly followed them along. When asked, it turned out they had been unable to hold it halfway and stopped by the roadside to take a shit, then got separated from their unit. Afraid of being seized as deserters, they could only tag along with this group for the time being.

During a rest along the way, one civilian laborer who had cut into the ranks patted the door planks, which were covered in mud and bloodstains, and said:

"Before the war, I worked as a helper in a village wineshop. Every day I rose just as the sky brightened to take down the door planks, and before nightfall I had to put them back up. When the Red Eyebrows stormed into the village, they killed the wineshop owner for a few mouthfuls of food. I lost my livelihood and could only join the army for a meal. I never thought I'd still end up serving these things!"

These door planks had not had it easy either. The laborers hauled them from Henei to the Yellow River, used them to build pontoon bridges, then dismantled them and kept hauling them south. They were fine things — soldiers with no time to build camps often slept on them. Once carried to the banks of the Pu River, where local timber was insufficient, they could be used to build a few more pontoon bridges.

Troops of different formations were crossing the river in an endless stream. Having been with the army a long time now, Xiang Ziping could judge a unit's quality at a glance.

"It's not about whether their armor and weapons are shiny; it's about whether they march in step."

For example, right now, the second division from Guanzhong had reached the Pu River. In terms of training, they were a full cut above the Ji Province troops and the Three He troops. On the main road, at least five columns of infantry were advancing. The four columns on the flanks were fast formations, fording the river directly. The one in the middle was slower, transporting grain and heavy supplies that had to cross via the pontoon bridge.

After crossing the Pu River, supply stations were set up every ten li heading south, using village gates or post stations. The soldiers had to hurry to the front to fight, while the civilian laborers were left behind at each camp, assigned countless tasks: gathering firewood, digging stoves, and boiling water.

These camps served three purposes. First, to collect the wounded and sick from the previous day's great battle. Second, to keep the stove fires burning all night, turning the grain the laborers had hauled into cooked food — mainly wheat cakes for easy carrying, or coarse, blackened steamed buns. Every soldier passing through could receive two, which made a meal, and at least tasted better than dry, parched flour.

Finally, they were used to take in stragglers. Lost shoes, blistered feet, or diarrhea from drinking unclean water all caused men to fall farther and farther behind their units. Of course, Xiang Ziping also spotted quite a few men who had deliberately injured themselves, limping and groaning as they fell behind. Frightened witless by the corpses along the Pu River, they dared not go to the front again. Some were lucky enough to evade the army inspectors' checks; others were judged to be faking their wounds and were seized on the spot, awaiting what would likely be brutal punishment.

Amid all the chaos there was still order. If forced to march the hard way, the Wei soldiers, laden with grain sacks and rolled-up straw mats, carried heavier loads than the Red Eyebrows and could not match their foot speed. But a good supply line saved the troops a great deal of time on the advance.

Dou Rong dared to guarantee to Diwu Lun: "Regardless of the outcome between Fan Chong and Commandant Ma, our army's reinforcements will reach the battlefield before the Red Eyebrows!"

"Will Wenyuan lose?"

Diwu Lun did not think so. "In the seven years since we were in New Qin, Wenyuan has fought a hundred battles and never once been defeated! He can rightly be called the Flawless General!"

The Wei army's reinforcements and the Red Eyebrows' reinforcements were like two ends of a rope, pulling against each other, and the knot being tightened in the middle was the contest between Ma Yuan and Fan Chong.

The carrion crows between the He and Ji rivers had truly hit a golden age these past few years. One natural disaster after another, one man-made calamity after another — corpses of the starved littered the ground, and the crows had gorged themselves fat and sleek. Today they soared high again. Across the empty Yan Province wilderness lay the bodies of Wei and Red Eyebrow soldiers. The crows fluttered their wings and descended, their sharp beaks first pecking at the flesh of cheeks, or the delectable eyeballs.

The wild dogs that usually foraged alongside the crows dared not approach today, for prowling among the corpses were Red Eyebrow soldiers. They closed their fallen brothers' eyes, then used spears to stab dead any Wei soldiers not yet fully dead, stripping them of armor and weapons to replace their own battered and broken gear.

Three days earlier, Ma Yuan had ordered Gai Yan's Yuyang lancers to leave first. He himself led his force in a small loop, counter-encircling the Red Eyebrow army's Yang Yin division that had come to intercept them, routing them in a hasty defeat — this was already the third time Yang Yin had lost to Ma Yuan.

But just as the Wei army had won a battle and begun pursuing the fleeing enemy, they were attacked from behind.

Ma Yuan had received advance warning from his scouts, but before he could hurriedly regroup his scattered forces, the Red Eyebrows were already upon them. The Red Eyebrows under Fan Chong's command comprised twelve ten-thousand-man camps in total. Given their chaotic way of marching, they reached the battlefield at staggered times.

By a typical general's habit, he would have waited in place, only facing the enemy once the main army had assembled. But Fan Chong, personally leading the Red Eyebrow elite, rested for barely two ke before launching an assault on Ma Yuan! The Red Eyebrow army surged forth like the Yellow River's waters sweeping across the wilderness, scattering the Wei troops in all directions.

On one side were men exhausted from a long march; on the other, men whose pursuit formations were strung out after a major battle. Fan Chong succeeded in dragging Ma Yuan into the chaotic melee he excelled at. The Red Eyebrow army kept arriving, while Ma Yuan's men grew fewer and fewer as they fought — unable to withstand the onslaught, they collapsed. Under that flurry of wild punches, those isolated units fighting as battalions or brigades were devoured. Ma Yuan only had time to rally a single division, which was now trapped on the open plain.

"The Red Eyebrows are truly endless — you can't kill them all."

At this very moment, Ma Yuan sat within his formation. The set of Bright Shine Armor that Diwu Lun had personally gifted him, once quite dazzling and whole, now had its plates hacked and battered by the Red Eyebrow death-sworn who had charged into the central army — no longer "flawless." Fortunately, most were mere scratches.

But to say Ma Yuan had lost to Fan Chong? Not entirely. He had, after all, managed to salvage the situation, rally his main force, and hold off the Red Eyebrow assault. Now he had shifted to a position between two hills, using wagons as a rampart, with halberds and shields in the front rank and bows and crossbows behind.

Whenever the Red Eyebrows surged forward, Ma Yuan would personally lead the counterattack. A thousand crossbows loosed as one, and the Red Eyebrow soldiers fell at the twang of the string, each assault leaving over a hundred corpses behind.

However fearless the Red Eyebrows were in the face of death, they could not sustain such losses and paused their attacks. But the Wei army was in no better shape. Ma Yuan had gone another sleepless night — the wails of wounded soldiers, the cawing of the crows, the Red Eyebrows' loud taunts from outside. But the main reason was that Ma Yuan was angry.

Angry at himself.

Ma Yuan recalled Dong Xuan's admonitions to him and had reflected: "Had I heeded Dong Shaoping's words and slightly tightened military discipline and kept the ranks strict, after defeating Yang Yin, the various lieutenant generals and colonels would not have charged so recklessly, exposing our rear to Fan Chong..."

In this battle, Ma Yuan had still suffered from underestimating the Red Eyebrows too much. He had not expected Fan Chong to be so decisive, ignoring the Emperor to the north — who was preening and posturing to lure the Red Eyebrows — and turning around to fixate on hammering Ma Yuan.

The most pressing matter now was to clarify the situation, both enemy and friendly. After a tally, this division had lost at least one brigade, but stragglers from other divisions had been gathered in, bringing the total to just under ten thousand.

Meanwhile, after Fan Chong's Red Eyebrows joined up with Yang Yin's remnants, their numbers were at least ten times that.

Just then, the Red Eyebrows outside began clamoring again. Ma Yuan took his men to observe. They saw the Red Eyebrows carrying captured brigade and battalion banners, one after another, to the front of the Wei army's temporary camp. They held them high, waving them, then threw them to the ground and burned them.

Next, they shoved forward several hundred captured Wei soldiers, shouting loudly about avenging their fallen brothers, and beheaded them right before their eyes. Before long, those heads were all impaled on the spear-tips of the Red Eyebrow army...

Filthy abuse poured unceasingly from the Red Eyebrow soldiers' mouths, mostly directed at Ma Yuan's female relatives. The lieutenant generals and colonels could endure insults to themselves, but let anyone speak half a bad word against Ma Yuan, and they would draw blades in the street over it. Hearing this, they were beside themselves with fury: "We accepted the Red Eyebrows' surrender at Dingtao and did not kill them, yet these wretches are so brutal! After this campaign, we must slaughter these bandits to the last!"

They began to plead for a breakout. "Commandant, though the Red Eyebrows are many, they lack long-range bows and crossbows, and they are weary from the long march and bitter fighting. That a host of over a hundred thousand merely surrounds us without attacking shows their morale is spent. If ten thousand men are of one heart, they can rampage freely through their midst. The other two divisions must still have surviving formations. If we break out and link up with them, we can fight as we retreat, pulling back to Boiled Jujube City!"

This plan was indeed feasible. Although the Red Eyebrow army had succeeded in splitting Ma Yuan's force, their encirclement was not yet tight. Boiled Jujube City was a mere thirty li away. If Ma Yuan ordered a breakout, given their combat strength, even if they could not withdraw unscathed from a hundred thousand Red Eyebrows, a considerable portion of their strength could still be preserved. The lieutenant generals and colonels, who revered Ma Yuan, thought that at the very least, they must get the General out alive.

Ma Yuan, however, disagreed. He asked in return: "If my division pulls back to Boiled Jujube, Fan Chong can then take his main force entirely south and break out of the He-Ji region. Don't you want to avenge this battle?"

They had only been speaking in the heat of the moment — was the General still thinking of turning defeat into victory? The men looked at each other. The position the Wei army held could hardly be called a steep defile. Relying on nothing more than a patch of woods, a small hill, and a wagon barricade, once the Red Eyebrows recovered their strength and charged, it would not be much different from a field battle.

At that moment, as the sky darkened, the lookout atop the small hill came to report: after lighting the beacon fire, they had spotted, twenty li to the northwest, strings of fire serpents moving swiftly, continuously responding according to the night communication protocols Diwu Lun had established for the Wei army.

Judging by that speed, it had to be chariot and cavalry forces. It was likely that Gai Yan, having discovered the Red Eyebrow army's true movements, had turned back.

"Ha ha ha ha."

Upon learning this, Ma Yuan suddenly burst into loud laughter, laughing so hard he clutched his stomach. This reaction could only be described as "wild with joy."

The men looked at each other in bewilderment. When he had laughed his fill, Ma Yuan revealed the answer to his colonels. "The first cause for joy: since Gai Yan was not trapped by the Red Eyebrow army, then given the foot speed of the Yuyang lancers, the details of this battle have surely already reached His Majesty's ears."

"The second cause for joy: His Majesty's strategy to annihilate the Red Eyebrows in one stroke is about to be realized!"

Albeit in a way no one had anticipated before the battle, and in a posture not entirely flattering to Ma Yuan himself.

Ma Yuan had his men spread out a map and pointed to it. "Since Fan Chong did not go north but instead headed south and clashed with me, it means that on the Pu River line, his detached force of several tens of thousands, left alone to withstand His Majesty's main army, is doomed to defeat! At the earliest yesterday, at the latest today, the Pu River battle has been decided."

"Fan Chong has trapped me here with over a hundred thousand men, hoping to wipe us out in one blow. That way, whether he withdraws south or turns back to face His Majesty, he would have ample freedom of action. But my division's armor and weapons are excellent, and we occupy favorable terrain. The Red Eyebrows are weary and have failed to take us in repeated assaults, losing their chance for a quick victory."

"Now, with Gai Juqing's Yuyang lancers and my division's remnants close at hand, and His Majesty with the Ji Province troops and Three He troops farther out, the great army is gathering. This is the perfect chance for a decisive battle with Fan Chong. Better that my division holds its ground and pins down the Red Eyebrow main force — thus we can coordinate with His Majesty and strike the Red Eyebrows from both sides!"

"Your Majesty has often used hammer and anvil to describe infantry and cavalry, or the offensive and defensive coordination of two armies."

"In the past, it was always Your Majesty serving as the anvil, and I as the hammer."

Scene after scene of their tacit cooperation flashed before his eyes. Ma Yuan swept away the gloom of the minor defeat, his spirit soaring once more. He smacked his lips and said, "This time, it's my turn to hold firm as the anvil, and Your Majesty's turn to be the hammer!"

"The moment the Five-Colored Banner arrives, I'll coordinate with Your Majesty from within and without. We'll treat the Red Eyebrows like molten iron fresh from the furnace — smash them until sparks fly in every direction! A blossom bursting from the center!"