Chapter 570: I Want Them Both

Xiangyang is hemmed in by mountains and the Han River. Apart from the water route, the only overland passage north and south runs between Xian Mountain and Atou Mountain. Hills crowd both sides like the mouth of a jar, and inside lies a narrow defile several li wide. Only after passing the jar's neck can one reach Xiangyang city at the jar's base.

Whoever controls the jar's mouth and neck controls Xiangyang's terrain advantage. The reason Feng Yi achieved nothing for months was that Cen Peng seized the initiative first. A direct assault had become ineffective; they could only pin down the enemy with the stratagem of "besieging Wei to rescue Zhao," but as things now stood, the effect was truly limited.

Unlike the Wei commanders, who liked to "act on their own authority," the Han generals — regardless of faction — shared one conviction: the realm's most skilled warrior was the Han Emperor, Liu Xiu! Especially in the hearts of Feng Yi and others who had fought at Kunyang, Liu Xiu's military ability ranked with war gods like Bai Qi and Wu Qi. Because Liu Xiu was at Chaisang, only a month or so away by water, Feng Yi, when faced with this dilemma, had drawn up battle maps and troop dispositions and sent them back for Liu Xiu to review.

And Liu Xiu had given his suggestion — the handwritten edict that Deng Yu now brought along with the reinforcements…

In the month or so since, the situation in Jing-Xiang had shifted slightly, but the broad picture remained unchanged. Feng Yi had hesitated over Liu Xiu's edict for a long time, solely because the plan carried some risk. Only now, with Xiangyang growing more precarious by the day and success about to slip away if they waited any longer, could Feng Yi grit his teeth and give it a try!

That was how this scene came about — Feng Yi leading twenty thousand troops to the very mouth of the "jar."

Feng Yi had long since come in person to reconnoiter many times. Today, as he drew near with his army, he still felt that the defile was fraught with danger.

"The terrain here is critical. Over these months, Cen Peng had only to send men to build a few wooden stockades here, and I would have struggled to break through. Yet Cen Peng built none — he deliberately left it open to lure me in."

It was no longer a hidden scheme but an open ploy. There was only one road; the question was whether you dared take it.

Feng Yi had always been cautious. Even when taking a risk, he advanced step by step and secured every position. He had the main army pitch camp outside the mouth and wait, sending only scouts and the vanguard ahead to probe. Every li they advanced, men had to report back.

As the scouts pressed deeper into the "jar's neck," the reports coming back were all good news: the route was safe and unopposed. The Wei army, perhaps too busy attacking Xiangyang and short on manpower, had left dozens of li of road completely undefended.

Yet the more this proved true, the more uneasy Feng Yi grew, and he could not shake the feeling that someone was watching him.

His gaze slowly climbed with the mountain contours toward the high peaks that even birds and beasts struggled to scale. Forest blanketed them, but Feng Yi could not help feeling that men were hidden up there, watching every step the Han army took!

……

Feng Yi's instinct was correct. On the hills to the left and right of the jar's neck, Wei army scouts were indeed keeping watch. Just the month before, as the glass workshop near Luoyang finally produced its first batch of slightly transparent glassware, a second batch of "far-seeing lenses" had also been made and rushed to the front line. By now, every Colonel had one, and key "scout chiefs" could use them too, to observe enemy movements.

But Cen Peng had set them a rule: "If you are discovered by the enemy and cannot escape, you must destroy the lens first!"

Fortunately, these scouts, trained by the Embroidered Uniform Guard, had been lurking around Xiangyang for months and knew the terrain as intimately as locals. No case of men dead and lenses destroyed had occurred. After spotting Feng Yi's vanguard entering the jar's mouth, the scouts immediately reported back to Cen Peng.

Cen Peng's main camp was west of Xiangyang city, beside a stream called "Tanxi." The ground here was slightly higher than the flatland, with easy access to water — the last critical point guarding the jar's neck.

"Feng Yi is about to enter the jar." After hearing the intelligence, Cen Peng said to Ren Guang with a smile, "Feng Gongsun is cautious and meticulous indeed. Were it me, I'd have charged to Tanxi in half a day. He, however, so fears an ambush that he'll take two days for the march."

With a great battle imminent, Ren Guang was still nervous and could only manage a dry laugh. "His Majesty often says that your army is the swiftest, Junran. How could Feng Yi compare?"

Cen Peng added, "Still, the reason Feng Yi moves so slowly yet so conspicuously is that he still harbors hope — he wants his friendly force to achieve something!"

He turned to another scout who had just returned from the Han River bank:

"Where has Deng Yu in eastern Han reached?"

"He slipped out of Liqiu last night and has now neared a Han River tributary, on the border of Nanyang!"

……

East of the Han River, when Deng Yu reined in his horse, he spotted the small boats in the middle of the stream. They clung like bone-boring maggots, shadowing them the entire way. Even if driven off, the Wei scouts galloping back and forth on the opposite bank remained unscathed.

"Our every move is under Cen Peng's eyes."

Although the effect of a stealthy surprise raid could not be achieved, this battle was like an arrow on a drawn bowstring — it had to be launched. Thanks to his wave of reinforcements, the gap between Han and Wei troop strength in the Jing-Xiang region had been closed. But if they delayed any longer, Xiangyang would fall, and Diwu Lun's reinforcements would stream south in an endless flow, destroying any chance of victory for good.

At this point, Deng Yu could only gamble on two things.

One was that the plan Emperor Liu Xiu had tailor-made for the front line would work: the Han army's current mobile strength was thirty thousand, split in two. Feng Yi would take twenty thousand men to the jar's mouth in the southern hills of Xiangyang and advance slowly, creating the appearance of a pincer attack with the city garrison, forcing Cen Peng to mass his heavy troops in defense and pause the siege, giving Xiangyang a moment to catch its breath.

Meanwhile, Deng Yu would take ten thousand men north along the eastern Han, his objective aimed straight at Cen Peng's deep rear: Fan City!

This was the advice Liu Xiu had sent them from hundreds of li away: "The King of Chu Li now holds out alone, with neither reinforcements nor provisions, while the Han army is cut off outside, with no communication between them. This is a moment of dire peril. Yet the Wei army is not unbreakable. Cen Peng stores his grain north of the Han; though guards are posted, their numbers are not large. You, my ministers, shall divide the army in two: use the regular force to attack the southern hills of Xiangyang, and use the surprise force to strike swiftly at Fan City."

"Cen Peng's troops are limited. Facing both the regular and surprise thrusts at once, he is bound to be caught between left and right, unable to attend to both."

"If he looks north, the regular force can break through the southern hills in one stroke, reach the walls of Xiangyang, and rescue the critical situation."

"If he looks south, the surprise force can rampage before Fan City. Even if the city is too strong to take, they can burn his docks and pontoon bridges, throwing the Wei army into great panic."

As long as one prong succeeded, the scales of victory would tilt toward the Han army…

As the sun sank westward, the murmuring tributary of the Han River lay right before them. This route had been traveled the previous month when Feng Yi sent Ma Wu north to raid Caiyang and Chongling, so the water conditions were well understood. Unlike the vast, surging main Han River, its tributary, though broad, had a rather agreeable depth — at most reaching a soldier's waist. Now in summer, it would at worst come up to the chest. With straw ropes for guidance, they could absolutely ford it.

To ensure speed and cross before the Wei army arrived to block them, Deng Yu marched extremely fast. This caused severe straggling in the Han army; of the ten-thousand-strong force, fewer than five thousand could keep up.

But this precious speed allowed the vanguard to force a crossing, seize the beachhead, set the hemp ropes, and let the follow-up troops cross bit by bit.

Deng Yu too spurred his horse across the river and set foot on the land before him. He actually dismounted, took up a handful of soil, and said with deep feeling to the Colonels around him, "This is the soil of Nanyang!"

He was a man of Nanyang too, a son of the Deng clan of Xinye. Though his body was in Jiangdong, his dreams often lingered in his homeland. After so many years, to set foot on this land again — how could he not be moved?

Deng Yu bolstered everyone's spirits: "General Ma Wu's five thousand troops will link up with me east of Fan City!"

"Gentlemen, strive hard! If we win a great victory this time, not only Jing-Xiang, but even our homeland of Nanyang may have hope of restoration! As His Majesty often says, the strong grass is known only in the fierce wind!"

These words were not just for the men, but also to hearten himself. Deng Yu had been appointed Grand Chancellor by Liu Xiu, ranking among the Three Excellencies, but because his seniority was shallow, his age young, and he had few real battle merits — his work being mostly strategic planning — he was often envied by some military officers who did not understand his craft.

Therefore, Deng Yu, who prided himself on having thoroughly studied the art of war, had always yearned for a chance to prove himself!

It was precisely for this reason that, before the battle, Deng Yu had strongly urged that Feng Yi take the regular force while he himself led the surprise force.

This was the second thing Deng Yu was gambling on.

"I must let His Majesty and my colleagues know that Deng Yu can not only devise strategies within the command tent and decide victory a thousand li away, but can also command a million-strong army — certain to win in battle, certain to take whatever he attacks!"

……

As the scout boats and riders reported back in an unending stream, Deng Yu's position and objective were plotted by Cen Peng onto the map before him.

"This plan is exceedingly vicious." Ren Guang, who also understood some military matters, mused, "Feng Yi and Deng Yu — one regular, one surprise — advancing from east and west. This is an open ploy. Junran, do you have a countermeasure?"

Although they had received a wave of reinforcements, the Wei army had divided its forces several times: Zhang Yu had taken a batch to Yicheng, and another batch was posted along the road from Xinye to Deng County to guard the supply line. Thus, the total strength at Xiangyang and Fan City was only forty thousand.

Of these, the main camp on the south bank of the Han had twenty-five thousand men, while Fan City and Deng County had a garrison of fifteen thousand: originally Fan City had only five thousand, and the newly arrived ten thousand were raw recruits Ren Guang had brought from Nanyang — mainly logistics troops who had hardly seen battle. Strictly speaking, they had never fought at all.

Cen Peng remained silent for a long while, then asked Ren Guang what he thought should be done now.

Ren Guang considered: "The scouts say Deng Yu's force is not large. As long as we have the troops hold fast and not sally out, Fan City should be in no danger. Better to look south and secure the Han's south bank with all our strength."

"No," Cen Peng said. "Deng Yu is likely not advancing alone in isolation. Don't forget, last month Ma Wu was sent by Cen Peng to raid Caiyang, Chongling, and other places. That man is fierce in battle; the local garrisons can do nothing with him. He too may turn south again and link up with Deng's force."

Hearing this, Ren Guang realized that in that case, Fan City — held by the bunch of raw recruits he had brought — might indeed be in danger. From Cen Peng's tone, he asked, "Do you mean to look north? To rush to Fan City's aid? But that would mean abandoning Xiangyang."

Xiangyang's western wall was already breached. One more push and it could be taken, fulfilling Diwu Lun's orders. To abandon it now would truly be a pity.

Cen Peng, however, laughed. "Not that either."

His hands slapped down on the map, one on each side of the Han River, north and south: "South, north — I want them both!"

At once, Cen Peng and Ren Guang settled on a battle plan: "Since Fan City has no shortage of troops, I won't take a single soldier with me. I'll slip back to Fan City via the pontoon bridge. Even if they're raw recruits, they've had half a year of training and farming in Nanyang — they'll be the backbone of the army. Add me to the mix, and they'll be able to fight!"

Ren Guang was taken aback. "Then who will defend Hannan?"

Cen Peng clapped his old comrade on the shoulder. "This place has twenty-five thousand soldiers, several Colonels, and with you, Boqing, holding the center, that's more than enough!"

Ren Guang was alarmed. "I'm a civil official — how can I direct a battle? And as Junran always says, Feng Yi is skilled in war. How could I possibly hold him off?"

But Cen Peng had already thought it through. "Feng Yi has one weakness: he's overly cautious. If I set up defenses at every narrow pass in the southern hills, he'll be forced to storm camp after camp, unstoppable in his momentum. But the more I leave things undefended, the more hesitant and wary he'll become. You lot keep flying my banner, make Feng Yi think I'm minding the south and ignoring the north. Fearing a trap, he won't dare launch a full assault lightly — that should buy you a day."

Ren Guang felt a headache coming on. If this went wrong, he'd have to share the heavy blame with Cen Peng! He quickly grabbed hold of Cen Peng, who was about to head north traveling light, and muttered his objections: "Junran, you must be joking. One day — what can be done in one day?"

But Cen Peng's mind was made up. He looked out at the overcast, rainy sky — truly, Heaven was aiding him! So he set his bamboo hat on his head, threw on a straw rain cape, hung his sword at his side, and strode out, leaving behind just one line:

"Enough for me to capture Deng Yu first, then turn back and smash Feng Yi!"