Chapter 572: Death Ground

The dark clouds from the northeast finally blanketed both banks of the Han River. Around Fancheng on the northern side in particular, torrential rain poured down in early May, drenching the newly victorious Han army to the bone.

The soldiers scrambled into the just-captured dock encampment, even regretting having set fire to part of it earlier, which left the majority without shelter. Some crawled under supply carts, others flipped over the small boats along the bank, a whole crowd huddling inside, listening to the muffled thunder rolling across the sky, with no idea when the rain would stop.

"This rain couldn't have come at a worse time."

The Han soldiers who had just stepped onto the pontoon bridge, preparing to set it ablaze and completely sever the Wei army's north-south link, were even more disheartened. Ma Wu cursed and swore as he ordered them back to the camp gate, then stroked his dripping wet beard and frowned. Lighting a fire in the rain was sheer folly; even if the sky cleared, it would take two or three days of blazing sun before the sodden pontoon bridge and timbers could dry enough to catch fire again.

He therefore ordered his men to guard the pontoon bridge closely and not let a single Wei soldier cross from south of the Han, while he himself went to find Deng Yu.

Deng Yu's troops were in an even sorrier state. Positioned between Fancheng and the docks, nearly ten thousand men could only run into the woods to shelter from the rain. Every soldier was soaked through. Only Deng Yu, shielded by the great canopy his Tiger Guards held aloft, remained untouched by a single drop, still elegantly planning the campaign over his map.

"Minister Deng." Although Ma Wu had always looked down on Deng Yu's style of a scholar commanding troops, this battle had given him a measure of respect for the man. He simply consulted him: "Since we can't start a great fire, why not take advantage of the Wei army's fresh defeat and raid their Fancheng ramparts? Fancheng is small and the Wei troops are many. Prisoners say the newly arrived, over ten thousand of them, can only crowd into barracks built outside the city. The walls are barely over a zhang high. One assault by the main army and they'll surely break!"

Deng Yu had his own ideas. "Sending soldiers disguised as Cen Peng's reinforcements to trick the camp is a fine plan, but a frontal assault is absolutely out of the question."

For one, in this cursed weather, any troops that could withstand a torrential downpour and attack could rightly be called "the realm's finest soldiers." A small band of private retainers or a powerful magnate's troops, with total loyalty to their master and lavish rewards, might possibly manage it. But an army exceeding a thousand men capable of such a thing — Deng Yu had never seen it with his own eyes, nor had he ever heard of a precedent in military treatises.

The Han army, to put it bluntly, was a motley armed force of powerful magnates, bandits, and refugees. Their morale was not particularly high to begin with, and being drenched by this rain had wilted them further. If he forced the order, they would collapse before even reaching Fancheng.

"Secondly, the garrison at Fancheng is roughly equal to our own strength. If we press a forceful attack, we might instead provoke them into fighting like cornered beasts. If we ease the pressure somewhat, it will give them false hope, making them unwilling to sally forth and content to merely wait for relief."

In Deng Yu's view, stalling a few more days was the wisest course. They had brought five days' rations and seized some more at the docks. After taking stock, they still had enough for five days.

"Victory or defeat will be decided within five days."

Deng Yu said, "The reason we raided Fancheng was precisely to sever the Wei army's connection between north and south, to throw their hearts into chaos and shatter their morale. Cen Peng can afford to ignore the borderlands of Nanyang, but he absolutely will not abandon Fancheng!"

"As soon as Cen Peng sends troops to cross north, we can strike them mid-crossing, and General Feng Yi can also drive straight to the walls of Xiangyang and break the tight siege!"

Once the siege was lifted, Jing and Xiang would essentially belong to the Han army.

At this point, Deng Yu no longer harbored the slightest doubt about his own command ability. "If Heaven lends its aid, while lifting the siege, we might even defeat Cen Peng and destroy his main force. Then, after consolidating the Jiang-Han region, continuing north to seize Nanyang and recover Wancheng would not be a delusion!"

At the same time, inside the Wei army ramparts outside Fancheng, Cen Peng questioned the lieutenant general in charge of local affairs:

"I long ago issued a strict order to the army: anyone who dares leak word of my arrival at Fancheng shall be executed! Has anyone violated it?"

"I venture to inform the General: none have!" Within the Wei army, this was considered a military secret. Aside from the trusted attendants tasked with receiving Cen Peng, only the lieutenant general and a few others knew. Even the scouts and cavalry officers were only told they were "receiving a certain Colonel" into Fancheng, nothing more.

Cen Peng nodded. "Excellent. This gag order can now be lifted."

The Han army's attack had come faster than expected, disrupting Cen Peng's original plan. Morale in Fancheng was somewhat unsteady; now was the time to use this news to hearten the men and stabilize their spirits.

Sure enough, when the anxious colonels braved the downpour to assemble and saw Cen Peng sitting composedly in the barracks, they were greatly and pleasantly surprised. Even the officers who had just come south with Ren Guang were mostly men Cen Peng had appointed and promoted during his defense of Wancheng — they were practically "Cen's Own Army."

Yet amidst their joy, there was also worry. After all, a great enemy was at their doorstep, and the docks had been lost. They feared Cen Peng would hold them accountable.

But Cen Peng merely sat there, smiling, and asked them:

"Is the rain heavy outside?"

As if seizing upon proof that their poor performance in battle, or their refusal to sally forth, was justified, everyone scrambled to answer, their language crude: "Like the heavens are pissing."

Cen Peng burst out laughing. "Then the gods have sturdy kidneys."

Then he paced to the doorway and stretched out his hand. The rain pelted his palm with a sharp crackle.

"It is indeed heavy." Cen Peng turned his head and said, "The Liu Han claim the virtue of Fire. This raid on Fancheng was meant to burn the docks and torch our pontoon bridge with fire. Yet this great deluge from the sky has doused it — this battle favors us!"

Though superstition was but a placebo, such a forced analogy might well be most effective on the common soldiers. Seeing the colonels' minds settle somewhat, Cen Peng formally began to deploy for battle.

"Withdrawing from the docks and luring the enemy with small gains was my order. However, the Han army advanced too swiftly, leading to today's minor defeat. The fault is truly Cen Peng's."

Cen Peng began by clearly delineating credit and blame. "From myself on down, no one in this campaign will be held accountable for this defeat. And those who unfortunately died in battle will have their merits reported to the Son of Heaven."

These words let everyone breathe easier. Fancheng was already completely shrouded by the rain clouds. Not only was the ground outside a quagmire, but even the Wei army ramparts leaked everywhere, the main tent being no exception. Water constantly seeped and dripped down. This great leaking house — ah, it was just like the Jing-Xiang Wei army. After fighting for months, they were indeed somewhat exhausted, their third drumbeat spent.

Yet Cen Peng's arrival seemed to bring light back into the dim room. His personal guards were all driven outside, and the colonels personally removed their helmets, using them as basins to catch the leaks everywhere.

One colonel even volunteered eagerly: "General Who Guards the South, this defeat stings! We were caught off guard. The Han army is still out there. Let me take a force of dare-to-die warriors and raid them! We must drive off the Han scoundrels and retake the pontoon bridge!"

Drive them off? Absolutely not. Cen Peng had paid an enormous price to lure the Liu Han's Three Excellencies, their imperial affines, and over ten thousand soldiers into the trap. How could he alert the prey now?

Moreover, the Wei army was no elite force capable of fighting in a rainstorm either. Even if they picked the bravest men, it would just be a chaotic brawl in the mud. But what Cen Peng wanted was total annihilation!

He encouraged the colonels who still had fighting spirit, but his gaze shifted to those shifty-eyed supply colonels. No wonder these men were timid — the soldiers they led were mostly garrison-farming troops who had trained for only six months to a year and had never seen real combat. Could such men even fight?

But Cen Peng believed that, having undergone the training method he and His Majesty had devised together, why couldn't new recruits take the field?

"What's this?" Cen Peng said. "When the Southern Expeditionary Army was stationed at Wu Pass, missing out on the great battles in Hebei and Longyou, you all grumbled endlessly, saying you had no chance to earn merit."

"Later, when we reached Wancheng, the Red Eyebrows' main force had already fled to the He-Ji region. Everyone heard that Commandant Ma and the Youzhou shock cavalry had again won great merit, and you were all envious, scratching your ears and cheeks."

"And when I attacked Jing-Xiang without bringing you along, you all wept and wailed, begging for a place on the campaign."

"Yet now, with great merit right before your eyes, you suddenly become so modest?"

Cen Peng's tone shifted from genial harmony to considerable anger. He suddenly slammed the table, making the helmets catching leaks vibrate, and everyone in the barracks jumped to their feet in fright!

"The Son of Heaven of Great Wei is watching from Wancheng!"

"Among all the colonels under the command of the General Who Guards the South's headquarters, who is a stallion with the goods and who is a sterile mule — through this battle, both I and His Majesty will see it clearly! And to whom His Majesty can issue the investiture edicts of enfeoffment, and who is fated to spend his life leading only militia and farming garrisons — that too will be crystal clear!"

These words did manage to scold the blood back into quite a few men. Having come all the way to Jing-Xiang, they had to earn something following the General, right? Cries to fight rose in an endless din. But Cen Peng could tell their confidence was still lacking. By their estimate, the Han army's strength was roughly equal to their own. The main force near Xiangyang had to guard against Feng Yi and could not return. Even with Cen Peng personally in command, there was no certainty of victory.

"Gentlemen, set your minds at ease."

Only then did Cen Peng reveal his greatest trump card to them:

"Earlier, some at court impeached me before His Majesty, claiming Cen Peng is incompetent, sitting idly by while Deng Feng and Jia Fu wreak havoc in Danyang and Ma Wu strikes Chongling."

"Ostensibly, I only said our forces were insufficient. But in truth, within the Southern Expeditionary Army, there is still a mobile force of over ten thousand men. I have simply held them back and not used them, keeping them only in Shandu County upriver."

That was the detached force that had previously raided Shandu and driven off Deng Feng's subordinate Zhao Xi. This unit was the most combat-effective division under Cen Peng, yet he had kept it hidden all along.

"Several days ago, the day after you all arrived at Fancheng, I learned the Han reinforcements had a tendency to push north. I immediately ordered this division to shift south and station itself at Deng County."

Deng County was just over twenty li northwest of Fancheng. Cen Peng pointed at the rain outside, which was falling harder and harder. "Prepare hot meals in camp. Let the three armies eat their fill. For now, let the Han army soak in the rain for a few days. When the downpour first clears, and their morale is at its lowest, the reinforcements from Deng County will also arrive. Then we shall sally forth together and utterly smash the Han army!"

After all, this was Deng Yu's first time leading a force of ten thousand, and he had underestimated this rain.

Though it did not last long — just a single short day — it was extraordinarily fierce. Even the broad Han River had visibly swollen considerably, its waters pounding the embankments and churning up terrifying waves.

And the Han army was battered by this rain. They had rushed north in haste; some soldiers relied on the dock barracks for shelter, but the majority could only huddle shivering in the woods. The thousand or so makeshift lean-tos they had thrown up were barely better than nothing.

May is normally scorching hot, but that night the rain came with howling gales, sending the ground temperature plummeting so sharply that the bizarre tale spread of men suffering frostbite from soaked clothes in the height of summer.

And because no fire could be lit, the soldiers had to eat dry grain soaked in rainwater; countless men fell ill with stomach trouble, large numbers even died of dysentery, and those burning with fever were beyond counting.

None of this was anything Deng Yu could have seen in his terse military manuals, and his experience as a nobleman and Imperial Academy student was of no help whatsoever. Only because Ma Wu, who had endured hard times on Greenwood Mountain, stepped in with advice did the Han army not collapse entirely.

"A sudden downpour is more terrible than swords and spears."

When the weather cleared the following afternoon and a ray of sunlight broke through the horizon, Deng Yu felt as if a great pardon had been granted him, and he resolved to sear this lesson into his memory so that next time, victory would be flawless...

Deng Yu still intended to follow his original plan and force Cen Peng to march north to reinforce Fancheng within three days.

But bad news came one piece after another.

"At Deng County, twenty-some li to the northwest, a large force lay in ambush at some unknown time. When our scouts drew near, the rain had just stopped, and a great army issued from the city, marching straight east!"

If the previous report had only made Deng Yu frown, the next one threw him directly into terror.

"We captured a Wei army scout and put him to harsh interrogation — he confessed that Cen Peng is already in Fancheng!"

"The Wei army in Fancheng is also marching out in succession!"

"What?"

Deng Yu was instantly horrified, and then it struck him at once: he was like a mantis mesmerized by the little cicada before its eyes, never realizing that Cen Peng, that old oriole, had long been behind him with beak agape, ready to strike!

"Since the Wei forces from Deng County and Fancheng have not yet linked up, why not strike Cen Peng first, then smash the enemy from Deng County!"

Ma Wu, utterly unafraid, proposed this bold plan, but Deng Yu looked at the Han soldiers after the rain — still sick, still listless, the keen edge of their earlier small victory long since washed away — and only shook his head. "Everything is Cen Peng's cunning scheme. The situation is beyond salvaging. We must withdraw at once to be safe!"

The Han army had no baggage train to burden it, so it could run reasonably fast. But when they retraced their route back to a tributary of the Han River — the Yu River, which flowed from their old home in Nanyang — Deng Yu was stunned to find that yesterday's deluge had not only turned the Jianghan region into a quagmire; Nanyang too had likely flooded. Now a torrent from the upper reaches was sweeping down, transforming what should have been a fordable stream into a vast, surging flood.

The tree they had used to rope themselves across was long since submerged in the muddy water. A few men tried to swim over, only to be swept away by the flood in the blink of an eye, vanishing without a trace!

Deng Yu could only gaze at the waters and sigh. "Cen Peng — did he even calculate this?"

Only now did he truly feel how military manuals could ruin a man. He had thought that following Liu Xiu on rampages through the southeast, then assisting Feng Yi with operations in Jingzhou, had taught him enough to "attack and surely conquer, give battle and surely win." Now he saw how much he still had to learn!

But it was too late for self-reproach. Time was flying past, the river was utterly impassable, and two columns of Wei troops were closing in from north and west. What was to be done?

Deng Yu fancied himself a strategic genius, but now, in this moment between life and death, with countless men counting on him, his mind went completely blank. He could not think of a single tactic that would let the whole army escape alive...

In his desperation, he could only recall one famous battle precedent, and like a drowning man clutching at a life-saving plank, he gave an order.

"General Ma Wu, the enemy has poured out in full force, and between two armies there are bound to be gaps. Take three thousand men, find a way through at all costs, circle around, and strike the Wei camp at Fancheng from the rear."

Penetrate between two enemy forces? Steal their home base? Easier said than done. But Ma Wu accepted the order, then asked in return, "And what of Director Deng?"

"Me?"

Deng Yu gave a bleak laugh. "Right now the troops' morale is low. I have never been one to earnestly soothe and care for them, so leading them is like driving market folk into battle. It happens to fit the military maxim: 'Corner them in deadly ground and they will live; place them in hopeless ground and they will survive.'"

"Today, we place ourselves in deadly ground, so that every Han soldier fights for his own life. We shall follow the example of the Marquis of Huaiyin and fight a..."

The young commander pointed at the raging river behind him, his voice hoarse and resolute. "A last stand with our backs to the water!"