Chapter 599: Undefeated

In the first ten days of the twelfth month of the third year of Wude, the land north of the Huai River was already frozen solid under a bitter sky. Yet the armies of Wei and Han ignored the foul weather, massing near Xiapi, a hundred and fifty li south of Xuzhou. A great battle was on the verge of erupting.

The Grand Master of Splendid Blessings, Fu Long, was extremely nervous about this fight. Their own vanguard had already suffered an initial defeat and setback at Xiaxiang County to the south, losing five thousand troops. On top of that, illness was spreading among the Youzhou and Jizhou soldiers, who could not adjust to the local climate. At best, their effective fighting strength was now under twenty thousand!

"Twenty thousand against thirty thousand, that is all. Their main force is Danyang infantry, while we have two thousand Shanggu shock cavalry."

Geng Yan, however, did not see it that way and remained as jovial as ever:

"Has Grand Master Fu forgotten that I once faced a foe ten times my number beneath the walls of Linzi with only a few thousand soldiers?"

Fu Long felt the two situations could not be compared. The commander facing them now was not a useless fool like Zhang Bu, but Liu Xiu, renowned for his mastery of military strategy!

What was more, because Geng Yan's Shanggu shock cavalry had plundered the great households far too ruthlessly after entering Huaibei, many powerful clans in the Huai-Si region had been pushed to desperation and had gone over completely to Liu Xiu's side. The southern army's true numbers were now very difficult to estimate.

Fortunately, after only a few days of waiting, Fu Long received a second memorial from Diwu Lun. He clutched it like a priceless treasure and once again urged Geng Yan: "His Majesty has issued an edict. The forty-thousand-strong army setting out from Pengcheng will reach Xiapi in five days. General, please wait just a little longer."

Geng Yan cupped his hands toward the north. "His Majesty has not forgotten us, and has sent reinforcements in time. However, the exigencies of war burn like fire. Liu Xiu sends troops to advance and challenge us day and night. The arrow is nocked and must be loosed. Never mind five days—we cannot even wait three."

Fu Long had noticed that Geng Yan's complexion had been worsening day by day. The damp, bone-chilling cold of Huaibei clearly did not agree with the young General Geng, and with his old wounds from Qi flaring up again, he had lately stopped riding and switched to a carriage.

"The General of Chariots and Cavalry is forcing himself to hold on."

Fu Long therefore tried a third time to dissuade him: "Liu Xiu is desperate for the General to engage him in battle as soon as possible. In the old days, during the struggle between Chu and Han, Xiang Yu ordered the Grand Marshal and Marquis of Haichun, Cao Jiu: 'Guard Chenggao with care. If the King of Han challenges you, be absolutely sure not to give battle. It is enough that you prevent the Han troops from crossing east past Chenggao. In fifteen days, I will surely have settled Liang and crushed Peng Yue, and then I will come to join the General.'

"Afterwards, the Han troops indeed tried several times to provoke the Chu army, but the Chu army refused to come out. The King of Han, Liu Bang, sent men to hurl insults and abuse for five or six days. The Grand Marshal Cao Jiu flew into a rage and sent his troops across the Si River. When his soldiers were halfway across, the Han struck them, and they suffered a crushing defeat. Xiang Yu was then forced to settle on the Canal of the Gap treaty with Han.

"Had the Chu army been able to wait just ten more days for Xiang Yu's return, the outcome between Chu and Han would have been hard to predict.

"Now Liu Xiu also wants a quick battle to lift the threat to Pengcheng. If the General accepts battle, he will have fallen right into Liu Wenshu's trap."

"Then in the Grand Master's opinion, with Wu's troops already pressing into the outskirts of Xiapi and constantly squeezing our army, unable to withdraw, and with Xiapi itself too small to hold all our soldiers, how exactly do we avoid battle?"

Geng Yan was not being stubborn; he was stating a fact. Xiapi was a small walled town. Soldiers and civilians combined, it could hold just over ten thousand at most. The rest would have to set up camp outside the walls, and they had not been able to construct solid fortifications.

But Fu Long believed that if they squeezed, it would actually be fine. He proposed: "Why not drive out all the residents, so that the soldiers can shelter inside the town while we wait for reinforcements to arrive..."

"This General, along with the stinking, reeking troops of three armies, is to huddle inside Xiapi? And sit and watch Liu Xiu rant and rave?"

It was simply too humiliating—something the proud Geng Yan could never accept. He gave a cold laugh. "Grand Master Fu, you are afraid of the enemy now that battle is upon us."

Fu Long, his throat raw from talking all morning, set aside his mild manner and stiffened his face. "General of Chariots and Cavalry, this is an imperial edict! Do you intend to defy orders?"

"Grand Master Fu, do not use His Majesty to pressure me."

Geng Yan rose abruptly to his feet. "To execute me or spare me, to exterminate my clan—these are things His Majesty can command of his subject. But to order me to fight when I cannot, or to order me not to fight when I can—even His Majesty cannot command that of his subject!"

These were the very words the famous general Kuang Zhang had used to rebuff King Xuan of Qi's demand that he hasten into battle before the Battle of Chuisha between Qi and Chu in the Warring States period. Once these words were spoken, there was nothing left to discuss between Geng Yan and Fu Long. Fu Long knew Geng Yan's mind was set. With a long sigh, he cupped his hands and descended from the hall, going off to write his own memorial explaining the full situation to the Emperor.

Only as he was leaving did he turn back and, as a colleague, offer young Geng a word of advice: "Bozhao, setting aside the fact that this battle is disadvantageous for our army, even if you win—the merit of destroying Wu is so immense. How could it possibly be monopolized by you alone? Water that is full will overflow!"

Knowing young Geng as he did, Fu Long suspected he was sulking because Diwu Lun had been slow to grant him the title of "Grand General of Chariots and Cavalry," and was determined to prove himself in this battle and establish unparalleled merit.

And what of Geng Yan? Once the words had left his mouth, he felt a twinge of regret in his heart. The matter could have been discussed properly; it did not have to come to this.

But the pride in his heart made it impossible for him to bow his head and reconcile with Fu Long, or to accept the kind of cowering, battle-avoiding retreat that was unacceptable for a general.

He merely murmured softly to himself: "His Majesty has his way of war, and I have my own military strategy."

The next day, Geng Yan ordered his younger brother Geng Shu to remain and guard the town, while he himself took his personal retinue out of the city to survey the battlefield and prepare for the great battle that might erupt in two days' time.

Although Xiapi was a key stronghold of the Huai-Si region, it was far from the impregnable fortress it would become in later ages. The Yi and Si Rivers converged here, so that the town was surrounded by water on three sides. Only the eastern side was a vast, unobstructed plain. If a large army attacked from west to east, Xiapi might hold out for quite some time. However, Geng Yan had launched a surprise attack on Xiapi from Donghai Commandery, relying precisely on a breakthrough from the east. Now Liu Xiu's direction of approach was the same.

Xiapi's fortifications consisted of an inner and outer wall. The southern gate of the main city was built from white stone quarried from a nearby mountain, and so it was also called... the White Gate Tower.

Exiting the White Gate Tower, one entered the Wei army's outer encampment. Though hastily constructed, it had a simple rammed-earth perimeter wall, about two li in circumference. The camp fortifications and barracks were all tightly packed, capable of garrisoning several thousand troops. West of the city there was another small camp, where over a thousand men were stationed to guard the water gate.

In the past few days, the arrow wound on Geng Yan's thigh had flared up again, so painful that he could not ride a horse and had to travel by carriage. But today, on his tour of inspection, how could he show weakness if he wanted to boost morale? He therefore donned his armor and mounted his horse once more, enduring the pain and proceeding with spirited vigor.

Yet within the Wei camp, the state of the three armies greatly disappointed Geng Yan.

He would not even mention the five thousand men who had fled back from Xiaxiang. Geng Yan knew well that an army that had routed once on the battlefield would do so a second time. Restoring morale in a short period was incredibly difficult. He had therefore placed them in a corner of the city and isolated them from the other units, lest they spread their influence.

However, what Geng Yan saw in the camp was not the eager, fervent enthusiasm that had preceded the great battle of Linzi. Instead, every man looked utterly exhausted, swaying unsteadily in the soughing, icy wind. Many were disheveled and unkempt, giving off a strong impression of hasty disorder.

Geng Yan immediately flew into a rage and glared at the Colonel. "My troops' morale is low and I cannot rouse them. Why is this? Are there women in the camp?"

The Colonel's face went white and he hastily knelt—a confession without being pressed.

Geng Yan did not emulate Li Ling by insisting on searching out those camp prostitutes and abducted women and beheading them to vent his fury. He merely warned the Colonel: "This General is aware of the hardships of the You and Ji troops. That is why, after entering Donghai Commandery, I did not strictly enforce military discipline. When the court's rewards were slow to arrive, I allowed you to let the soldiers plunder for their livelihood. As for matters like bringing women along with the army, this General also turned a blind eye, and even helped you conceal them from Grand Master Fu."

"But before the great battle, they must all be driven away, so that the soldiers can regain their spirit."

The Colonel mumbled his assent, promising to have everything "cleaned up" before nightfall.

Afterward, Geng Yan randomly inspected the rosters and discovered severe shortages of personnel. Excluding those who had fallen behind or died in battle on the long expedition, a full ten percent of the men were unaccounted for.

The camp clerk knelt and explained: "General, many soldiers are ill. With the recent severe cold, the sick have grown even more numerous. For the moment, they are bedridden and cannot rise."

Frowning, Geng Yan entered the isolation tent to inspect it. The inside was filled with a foul stench: excrement and urine, sour sweat, and a strange assortment of medicinal smells.

The army physician, who had been crouching before the stove brewing medicine, hurried over to pay his respects when he saw Geng Yan, and casually handed him a face covering—something Diwu Lun had mandated. The Emperor had carried out sweeping reforms to the military medical system. Isolating sick soldiers separately and covering the mouth and nose with hemp cloth boiled in hot water when interacting with patients were just two of them. But how could this thing compare to the medical masks of later ages? Its actual effectiveness was a matter of opinion.

The army physician explained that at first, only some soldiers had felt fatigue, gastrointestinal distress with diarrhea, muscle aches, or sore throats, nasal congestion, and runny noses. It was assumed to be physical exhaustion from half a year of campaigning from Qi to Xuzhou, covering a thousand li, combined with the Youzhou and Jizhou soldiers' inability to adjust to the Huaibei climate. Gradually, however, the number of sick soldiers increased, and their symptoms worsened, developing into high fevers and headaches that left them bedridden. After entering the twelfth month, the camp had even seen its first death.

"What illness is this?" Geng Yan, who had no penchant for "sucking the pus from his soldiers' wounds," very carefully covered his own mouth and nose to protect his life. Unlike Ma Yuan or Cen Peng, he was absolutely not the type to share the hardships of the three armies. In both his tactics and his character, he more closely resembled Huo Qubing.

The army physician gritted his teeth and, based on his own experience, reported: "It may be Cold Damage."

The moment this name of the illness was spoken, the faces of everyone accompanying Geng Yan on his camp inspection changed dramatically.

Geng Yan, however, directly rebuked him:

"Do not make alarmist pronouncements!" Geng Yan cursed. "This General grew up in the northern cold of Shanggu. Cold Damage is encountered there every year, but I have never heard of Cold Damage in Xu and Yang."

The army physician, not entirely certain himself, hastily corrected himself. Geng Yan swept his gaze over the sick soldiers lying in the tent, groaning in pain and sighing in misery, but did not go to greet them one by one. He merely strode quickly out of the isolation tent, tore off the hemp face covering, and breathed in the crisp, cold air outside, as if trying to expel all the foul miasma from his lungs.

Then, he gave an order to the Colonel: "In the depths of winter, it is entirely normal for soldiers to suffer some headaches and fevers. Is there not a small camp west of the city? Transfer all the sick soldiers there, and isolate and care for them separately."

Geng Yan did this not only out of a sliver of pity for the soldiers who had followed him on a thousand-li campaign, but also because he did not want them affecting the great battle.

Sick as they were, bitter as it was, the battle still had to be fought. Compassion does not command armies, and Geng Yan was precisely the kind of man most suited to be a general. His eyes saw only the objective the army had to achieve. Whether it was the Emperor's edict or the soldiers' suffering, he saw all the difficulties, but his resolve to fight the Battle of Xiapi only grew firmer.

"My troops have indeed suffered a recent defeat, and after a thousand-li expedition, the soldiers are weary and worn, with no shortage of sickness and weakness."

"That being the case, why not deliberately feign weakness and suffer a minor defeat in the initial engagement, to inflate Liu Xiu's arrogance? Once he is overconfident, he will attack our main outer camp."

The blueprint for the battle was already unfolding in Geng Yan's mind. "And I will personally lead the elite troops and the Shanggu shock cavalry in a flanking assault on Liu Xiu's battle lines."

But considering that his own side's fighting strength was far inferior to what it had been at Linzi, Geng Yan also had a premonition that he might fight and yet not win.

Earlier, though he had quarreled with Fu Long and spoken in anger, sitting now inside the camp ramparts, Geng Yan still took up his brush and began to write his memorial requesting battle, wanting to explain his strategy to the Emperor from beginning to end.

"Liu Xiu has marched his entire army north. If we can destroy his main force north of the Huai, then taking Huainan will be effortless. Even if Liu Xiu flees back to Jiangdong, he will never again be able to accomplish anything great."

"Your Majesty dispatching troops as reinforcements is a good thing, but it may also force Liu Xiu to retreat. This man wages war with both courage and cunning. He has his fleet stationed at the mouth of the Shu River, able to advance or withdraw at will. With only two thousand Shanggu cavalry, your servant cannot cut off his retreat."

"If we wish to settle everything in a single campaign, there is only one chance — at Xiapi."

This chance was delivered to Geng Yan by Heaven itself. After all, Liu Xiu bypassed Lingbi to strike at Xiangxian — even he had not foreseen that.

Geng Yan set down his brush and looked at the soldiers outside. The Colonel was busy driving the camp women away. The sick were being moved to the west side of the city, while many more stood in the cold wind, longing for home.

Over twenty thousand living, breathing lives — yet they were no more than the sword in a general's hand. Once blunted, he would not hesitate to cross blades with the enemy, letting it snap on the spot.

And so, the grand scheme in the heart of Geng Yan — this young general whom Fu Long saw as proud, reckless, and bellicose, greedy for merit and wanting to claim all the glory — was at last laid out fully for Diwu Lun in his memorial:

"So long as we can lure Liu Xiu into a tangled fight with our army, victory or defeat in that battle does not matter. Your servant is willing to use the lives of these twenty thousand You and Ji soldiers, and the undefeated name I have borne all my life, to hold Liu Xiu for three to five days. Once the reinforcements from Pengcheng arrive, though your servant may suffer defeat —"

Geng Yan wrote the final characters on the memorial:

"— Your Majesty, the Great Wei, shall surely triumph!"