Chapter 683: A Great Foe

On the nine-hundred-li Cloud Dream Marsh, the vast Han fleet of boats and ships lay moored at a temporary anchorage. They had been ordered to ferry provisions and baggage between Xiakou and Jingling, but now the Jingling docks were utterly destroyed and the vessels could not make shore. They could only withdraw deep into the lake, far from the Wei army — like a pod of roaming whales that had lost its leader, adrift and bewildered.

Not until the Han Grand Minister of Works Deng Yu arrived from Xiakou did they find their backbone again.

The lake wind was strong today. As two boats drew alongside, before they had steadied and laid planks, General Zang Gong, the General Who Supports Might, who had reached the fleet first to deliver a report, jumped across impatiently. He was tall and powerfully built, and the lurch of his leap set the boat rocking even harder.

Zang Gong strode up to Deng Yu, knelt, and begged forgiveness: "Zang Gong was ordered to hold Jingling and guard His Majesty's line of retreat. Though I received the Grand Minister of Works' warning beforehand, I still arrived a step too late. The Wei army's Geng Bozhao division forced a crossing of the Han River from Mount Zhang, struck south, and burned the Jingling docks. When I tried to send men to retake and repair them, they were repeatedly raided by his cavalry…"

Zang Gong was full of self-reproach, but Deng Yu sighed and said, "General, do not blame yourself. Deng Yu, too, was bottled up at Xiakou by a Wei flanking force. Only then did I realize that our rear was no longer secure."

"As things now stand, it is not only the three passes at Ming'e that have fallen and the entire Jiangxia Commandery that has been lost — the Wei army has already thrust south of the Han River."

Zang Gong and the fleet's colonels had still been hoping that Jiangxia could provide support. They had never imagined that matters had already grown this grave.

"Even without Pang Meng acting as their inside agent, Geng Yan's southward advance was far too swift. It does not look like he set out only after receiving Cen Peng's call for aid — it was premeditated! Our entire campaign on the Jiang and Han rivers was detected by the State of Wei from the very start. Diwu Lun must have a follow-up move." Deng Yu made a bold prediction: "Perhaps another large army is already marching south from Xiangyang. The Blue Mouth Settlement that General Fu Jun is holding will be nearly impossible to keep!"

"Ah!?" Zang Gong was even more stunned. "If that is so, then Geng Yan destroyed our docks precisely to cut off His Majesty's retreat, so that he, the main Wei army, and Cen Peng can jointly strike the great Han royal host?"

That in itself was nothing; if the enemy was strong and they were weak, they could simply retreat. But the fatal point was this: if Deng Yu's guess was right, once the Blue Mouth Settlement sooner or later fell to the Wei army, there would no longer be a single suitable ferry crossing on the Han River to receive the land forces!

Deng Yu told Zang Gong and the others not to panic and analyzed the situation coolly: "At this stage, the first priority is to do everything we can to keep the fleet intact. It is our sole advantage — and our sole line of retreat."

For that reason, Deng Yu opposed the wish of some colonels to burn with zeal, abandon the boats, land, and fight it out head-on with young Geng's cavalry to retake Jingling or go to Dangyang to support Liu Xiu.

"We would do better to find a safe ferry crossing at once and wait for His Majesty there. That is what the fleet is best at!"

Zang Gong had already pondered this question and proposed, "The eastern Cloud Dream and Xiakou are too far. As for places close to the Dangyang battlefield, apart from Jiangling, there is also Huarong County."

By all reckoning, Huarong County lay only a few dozen li south of Jingling, but to reach it by water, the fleet would first have to enter the Yangtze, then go against the current into the western Cloud Dream Marsh, which was cut off by dry land — a detour of several hundred li, taking several days.

But there was no other way. Deng Yu had already left officers to hold Xiakou, and he personally directed the fleet south. Yet at noon the next day, just as they sailed into the Yangtze, an urgent report arrived from upstream…

"The day after Jingling fell, Wei cavalry immediately struck south and raided Huarong. Disguised as Han troops, they not only destroyed all the docks and took the walled town, but also burned every bridge along the Huarong Road…"

The wind bellied the canvas, water birds cried in the air, but a silence fell over the tower ship. Deng Yu felt a chill in his teeth. The fall of Huarong was within his expectations, but the Huarong Road was a small track leading from Huarong County to Wulin Village on the Yangtze's bank — submerged during the Cloud Dream Marsh's high-water season and only exposed in the dry season. Even locals barely knew of it. Could Wei's intelligence network truly be this terrifying? Geng Yan had not even spared the Huarong Road; he was determined to seal off every line of retreat for Liu Xiu and settle the whole campaign in a single battle!

"The scoundrel!" Zang Gong cursed in despair, slamming his palm against the gunwale. "We can only go to Jiangling!"

The good news was that Jiangling City had remained in Han hands all along, and its docks were protected by the city walls — young Geng's cavalry could not break in so easily.

But this meant the fleet would have to travel west for another full day. They could only hope there was still time to receive Liu Xiu.

Deng Yu, however, was thinking of another problem.

"In this battle, will His Majesty… retreat?"

…

At Changban in Dangyang, the setting sun was like blood.

Ten days earlier, Liu Xiu had joined forces with Feng Yi, Jia Fu, and the other generals, and with eighty thousand Han troops had pursued Cen Peng to this place. Cen Peng, though he had painfully lost over ten thousand men from his rear division, had linked up with Yin Shi and others who had stayed behind in Dangyang to gather provisions, and his strength still numbered forty thousand.

The Wei army had just been defeated and the Han army had just been victorious; on the surface, Liu Xiu held every advantage. Yet Changban had been a perilous Jing-Chu fastness since ancient times. During that month spent attacking Ying County and Jiangling, Cen Peng had also ordered Yin Shi to use the natural defenses of Dangyang's Changban to erect camps and stockades, forging it into a hard bastion.

The outer perimeter of Changban was a series of dense ravines. Where the slope began to climb, there rose a rammed-earth outer wall twice a man's height. Behind that stretched an unbroken line of timber stockades encircling the slope into a fortress, with numerous watchtowers set along the wall, each capable of holding several dozen crossbowmen.

Even if these preparations could not fully offset the Han army's two-to-one numerical advantage, the counterweight trebuchets inside the stockade, which kept hurling great stones, truly gave Liu Xiu a headache.

Every time the Han army attacked, along with a sky-darkening rain of bows and crossbows, massive stones came arcing out. The effect was rather like flinging pebbles at ants — all told, they crushed very few Han soldiers to death — but the sheer shock was genuinely terrifying. Already several units, charging headlong into an oncoming stone, had instantly broken and scattered.

One colonel even complained to Liu Xiu, "Your Majesty, no matter how sharp the arrows, we have armor and shields to block them; even if hit, we may not die. But these flying stones weighing over a hundred jin — whoever they strike is turned to meat paste."

An exaggeration! But the good news was that these devices were hard to build, and with so many men crammed inside the stockade, space was extremely tight. Cen Peng had only a few of them. Once they worked out which directions they faced, they were fairly easy to avoid.

Yet even in positions the trebuchets could not cover, it was still very hard for the Han army to breach the stockade. Though the Wei troops had tasted defeat, because Cen Peng had deliberately feigned his retreat, the withdrawal had been orderly and their morale had not yet crumbled. Now trapped in a death ground, if the stockade fell, what awaited them was either death in battle or, like Gai Yan and those unlucky Yuyang lancers, being taken captive and hauled off to the south.

"The south is low and sweltering; rice is hard to stomach; men die young. Once across the river, what difference is there from death?"

Roused by Cen Peng, the Wei troops instead flared with fighting spirit. They were all regulars who had trained for a year in Nanyang, organized by village and ward, skilled with banners and signals, and their individual martial skills were passable. Thus they fought the Han army on even terms, trading blow for blow.

After several days of fierce assaults, the Han army's losses were considerable. In the end, it was Wang Chang leading the Danyang troops into battle who finally broke open a corner of the stockade.

Yet when the Han troops poured through the breach, they were stunned to find gate after gate inside the gate. The Changban fortified camp was a single whole, yet each section formed its own system. The fighting was far from over.

By this stage of the battle, both sides had suffered dead and wounded. The Wei army was growing weary and spent, and the Han army was likewise flagging.

It was during this stalemate at Dangyang that Liu Xiu received, one after another, urgent reports from the rear…

The first to arrive was a plea for help from the Front General Li Tong, saying that the Wei army's Geng division was bearing down on the three Ming'e passes and that he had already rushed to help Pang Meng hold them.

"They came so fast." At that moment, Liu Xiu only thought this much, still placing trust and hope in Li Tong and Pang Meng, believing they could protect his flank. But three days later, he understood just how "fast" young Geng truly was!

A forced crossing at Mount Zhang, the Jingling docks destroyed, Wei troops appearing at Xiakou — Geng Bozhao had materialized in his rear south of the Han River, in command of several thousand cavalry, and was methodically demolishing his retreat routes one by one.

And the reason for the defeat at the three Ming'e passes and the loss of all Jiangxia Commandery? Li Tong had had no time to get word to Liu Xiu, which planted suspicion in the Han Emperor's mind.

"From Cen Peng to Geng Yan, one link snapping tight after another — it seems all of this is Diwu Lun's stratagem."

Liu Xiu had been Diwu Lun's enemy for ten years and knew this opponent very well: he was plainly a superior version of Deng Yu — not adept at the frontline command of "military posture," but a master of the strategic "military power and plotting." And there was one thing Deng Yu could not hope to match: Diwu Lun was obsessed with the "military craft" of sharpening armor and blades and employing engines of war, and had repeatedly achieved remarkable success when the two states clashed.

By now, Liu Xiu understood that the situation was dire. Raising his head to look at Changban, where the slaughter and bitter fighting raged on, he hesitated several times before finally making up his mind.

"The front line will feign a fierce assault; the rear units will prepare to withdraw south!"

When they heard that Liu Xiu planned to slip away by night, many officers found it hard to accept. They were only a hair's breadth from taking Changban and annihilating Cen Peng. Jia Fu, who a few days earlier had suffered twelve wounds at the South Zhang River, came to plead for orders:

"Your Majesty, let me take my men and charge one more time!"

"General Jia, do not lose heart."

Liu Xiu said, "This is using retreat to advance!"

"If this is indeed Diwu Lun's cunning plot, meant to lure Us to Dangyang so that he can fight a decisive battle with the great Han, then when Cen Peng sees Us pull back, he will surely lead his troops out of the stockade in pursuit to tie down the Han army."

"In this way, We can lure part of the Wei army out onto open ground for a field battle. We shall order the main force to fall back twenty li south to Dangyang Bridge, then turn and strike. General Jia, you may take five thousand men, circle around, and attack their line of retreat — wipe them out in one blow!"

Liu Xiu spoke with deep earnestness: "Even if we keep up the fierce assault on Changban, to take it in one stroke would likely cost us another ten thousand casualties and take ten or twenty more days. Better to take it by stratagem."

Only then did Jia Fu see the light, but he added, "And if Cen Peng does not come out?"

"Then We will have guessed wrong."

Liu Xiu gave a wry smile, but he was well aware that Wei had committed two of its great generals, Cen Peng and Geng Yan, in succession. Diwu Lun's objective could not possibly be satisfied with contending for Jiangling. For all he knew, the Wei Emperor's great army was already on the march!

That night, Jia Fu acted according to the plan. Just before the Han army's night withdrawal, Liu Xiu indeed received a report of the utmost urgency from the Blue Mouth Settlement. The silk letter was still stained with bloody handprints — it was the final message of General Fu Jun, General of the Massed Crossbows, though Liu Xiu still did not know whether he lived or died…

Liu Xiu read it in silence, then clutched the silk tightly in his hand. He turned to look back at Changban, its hills ablaze with campfires. Beyond it, Liu Xiu seemed to see Diwu Lun arriving with the Wei army's main host, vast and surging like a flood!

Feng Yi had already led the rear guard away. Only Wang Chang remained at Liu Xiu's side. Seeing Liu Xiu silent, he asked with concern, "Your Majesty, what did General Fu report?"

"Nothing serious." Liu Xiu did not show the silk letter; he only said lightly, "Wei troops from Xiangyang are moving south to reinforce. Fu Jun is fighting hard — he says he can at least tie those twenty or thirty thousand men up for ten days to half a month."

That was indeed what Fu Jun had written in his memorial, but Liu Xiu had omitted the part about Diwu Lun's great army bypassing Lankou Crossing. Otherwise his generals would surely panic, and right to his face they would bitterly lay out the dangers and urge him to first withdraw to Jiangling and then plan again from a longer view...

Wang Chang suspected nothing and still made arrangements according to the earlier plan, preparing for the three armies to turn back and strike the pursuing Wei troops once they reached Dangyang Bridge.

The soldiers' footsteps rustled, horses' hooves clopped on the dirt road, and countless thoughts flashed through Liu Xiu's mind.

Reckoning the time, by the day after tomorrow at the latest, Diwu Lun's great army would reach Changban! Fu Jun had not been able to see their numbers clearly; his initial guess was "a hundred thousand."

Young Geng's army of over ten thousand had appeared behind Liu Xiu, moving as if through uninhabited land, and could strike north to harass him at any moment.

And there was Cen Peng at Changban — he had already detected Liu Xiu's night flight. The drums mustering the troops were sounding within the stockade. Would he sally forth?

A thousand threads, ten thousand strands — powerful foes like a forest, coming one after another. Yet Liu Xiu, whose heart had been somewhat flustered after his earlier failed assault on Cen Peng, was now growing calmer and calmer. He even unhurriedly began stroking his beard!

"These men are truly the greatest foes Liu Xiu has ever encountered in his life!"