Chapter 125: The Art of Attack

"So the Outer Huang Magistrate means to resist to the bitter end."

Watching the men sent by Two-Five-Hundred Commander Yang Xiong to shout for surrender being driven back by a volley of arrows from the wall, Heifu shook his head and said to the squad leaders beside him.

They had reached Outer Huang County yesterday evening. Outer Huang was originally a city of Song in the Spring and Autumn period, then fell to Wei in the Warring States. The county town was about the size of Anlu County seat. Because it lay deep in Wei territory and had rarely seen war, Outer Huang's defenses were far inferior to Chenliu's — the wall was only three zhang high. But now the gates were tightly shut, and the wall top swarmed with heads as they prepared to defend.

Hearing this, the men were not worried but rather pleased, for if a city surrendered without a fight, they would earn no merit.

"Judging by the preparations on the wall, Outer Huang's morale is not low. This may well be our first bitter fight."

With that, Heifu turned to look back at their own camp. After they arrived yesterday, besides the thousand soldiers, another thousand convicts and garrison conscripts sent as reinforcements from Daliang had joined them — two thousand men in all. Then, on Yang Xiong's orders, they had dug earth and felled timber to hastily build a camp and settle the troops.

Once they had a firm footing and the enemy city had refused to surrender, battle became the only choice. Soon a messenger came looking for Heifu, summoning him and the other platoon commanders and hundred-man commanders to the main tent to receive orders…

This tent for a thousand-man commander was, in truth, only slightly wider than an ordinary tent. Yang Xiong, the Two-Five-Hundred Commander — also called a "Battalion Commander" — sat in the center. To his left and right were the two Five-Hundred Commanders: Zhang Yi from Wan City in Nanyang, and Cheng Wuyou from Yidao in Nan Commandery.

Over ten hundred-man commanders and platoon commanders sat at the lower end. Heifu's place was far from the seat of honor and very close to the tent door — a clear sign that his standing in this unit was not high.

Though Yang Xiong was a scion of a noble house and particular about his attire and ornaments, he wasted no words and quickly asked: "This Battalion Commander, by order of the General of the Center, has come north to take Outer Huang. Yet the Outer Huang Magistrate, blind to the greater situation, has led the city's soldiers and retainers to resist stubbornly. Therefore, since the host is assembled it shall not scatter in vain; since the troops have marched out they shall not return empty-handed. This city must be taken! Do any of you have a plan to breach it?"

Zhang Yi, the Commandant Clerk of Wan City, had always fancied himself a strategist. He cupped his hands and said: "The art of war says: if ten times the enemy, surround them; if five times, attack them. But now our army numbers only a little over two thousand, while within Outer Huang there are several thousand able-bodied men. The scouts who circled the city report that on each of the four walls — east, south, west, and north — there are armored soldiers, sword-bearing guests, and townsfolk with farming tools, at least five hundred per side. In total, the enemy's strength matches ours. Ordinary siege and assault methods will likely prove difficult."

Yang Xiong said: "Oh? Then what does the Five-Hundred Commander propose for the assault?"

"The art of war says: if battle is not certain victory, one must not speak of battle; if attack is not certain capture, one must not speak of attack. In this subordinate's view, it would be better to… lure the enemy out of the city!"

Heifu listened from below and shook his head inwardly.

This Zhang Yi had come up through the academy, studied plenty of laws, ordinances, and military texts, but had fought few actual battles — he was rather like the man who tried to find a steed using a picture.

Earlier, he had proposed a forced night march to launch a night raid on Outer Huang, and Yang Xiong had adopted his suggestion. But after Heifu and the others donned armor, took up halberds, and ran panting thirty li to reach Outer Huang, they discovered that the Outer Huang Magistrate inside the city was no fool. Zhang Er was highly vigilant, had long since detected the Qin army's approach, and had shut the gates tight. Torches blazed along the wall top, and the local bravos and county conscripts patrolled through the night — they were waiting for them!

Now Zhang Yi was still speaking excitedly: "We shall feign exhaustion from the forced march. Send the convicts and garrison conscripts out in loose formation to challenge the city, while the elite troops remain concealed in camp. Seeing our army weary and disordered, and with the able-bodied men, soldiers, and retainers inside the city roughly equal to our own, the Outer Huang Magistrate may well come out to give battle. We can first let the conscripts feign defeat and lure them into pursuit, then spring an ambush. Once we have annihilated this force that sallies out, we storm the county seat. By then, the remaining enemy inside will be terrified and their morale low. Taking Outer Huang will be as easy as turning over one's hand!"

He was happily spinning fantasies in his head, but Heifu found it laughable. Since the enemy commander inside the city was no fool, hoping to trick them into coming out for a field battle with clumsy acting was nothing but a fool's dream.

Besides, if you can defend a city, why risk sallying out for a field battle?

In the Spring and Autumn period, the nobility valued upright, honorable battle. The two sides would array themselves in the open field and decide victory or defeat within a single day. Even the groundbreaking Sunzi's Art of War, limited by its era, rarely discussed sieges and even said that "attacking cities is the lowest resort."

But by the Warring States period, siege warfare had become something military thinkers could no longer avoid.

The population density and degree of land development in the Warring States period were both very low compared to the era after unification.

Low population density meant that the main population and resources were concentrated around the major cities. Low land development meant that transportation conditions were very poor. Before Qin began its massive road-building campaigns, even in the Central Plains, the main roads were extremely limited. Between counties, there was often only a single narrow post road.

These two points determined that the mode of warfare in the Warring States period could only be primarily a grinding advance of taking strongpoints — that is, capturing one city after another along the roads, with at most some variations like besieging a point to block reinforcements. That is why the records of Warring States warfare are so often: "In such-and-such a year, in such-and-such a month, so-and-so took such-and-such a city."

The concentration of population and resources meant that an attacker had to seize cities and strongholds; occupying a patch of undeveloped, godforsaken land was meaningless. And the limited road network severely constrained both the advance of armies and the transport of logistics, dooming the attacker — they could not bypass the enemy's frontline cities to play leapfrog warfare.

Thus, the attacker's line of advance was essentially predictable. The defender only needed to concentrate the bulk of his forces in a major city along the enemy's line of advance and defend it to the death. Even in the Battle of Yan and Ying, where the Qin army already held an overwhelming advantage, they still could not bypass Yan City to strike at Chu's heartland. Bai Qi was forced to take the city the hard way.

Therefore, on the strategic level, the battlefield environment of the Warring States era truly did favor the defender.

On the tactical level, in the age of cold weapons, the defender held a great advantage in siege warfare. A few thousand men holding a city, fighting from a commanding height, could often hold off tens of thousands of crack troops — unless there really were a few men fearless of death who opened the gates and fought head-on.

That Outer Huang Magistrate, Zhang Er, was clearly not that kind of man. He too feared that the Qin army outside the city was only the vanguard, with the main force still to come.

This was what Heifu thought in his heart, but he was not so foolish as to openly oppose his immediate superior's proposal. He could only hope that the commander, Yang Xiong, would reject this plan.

Yet, to his surprise, Yang Xiong once again adopted it with a smile, ordering everyone to go down immediately and make preparations — some to lure the enemy, others to lie in ambush concealed within the camp.

"What is this Battalion Commander trying to do?" Heifu was puzzled. From his speech, Yang Xiong did not seem like a foolish man ignorant of military matters.

Just as Heifu expected, after a day of sending the convicts and garrison conscripts out of camp in loose order to make a show of challenging the city, Outer Huang's gates remained tightly shut. The Outer Huang Magistrate showed not the slightest desire to sally out and give battle.

That county bravo, Zhang, knew exactly what he wanted: hold out for seven or eight days, beat back one assault, prove he had not let Wei down, and then he could flee.

Seeing his stratagem come to naught again, Zhang Yi's expression soured. At this point, it was Battalion Commander Yang Xiong who consoled him and then laid out the real battle plan.

"It seems Outer Huang must be taken by direct assault after all!"

Watching Yang Xiong's smile-filled face, Heifu down below the tent finally figured out his intent.

Battalion Commander Yang Xiong, scion of a noble house, appeared to have no opinion of his own, always summoning everyone to ask for plans before every battle. But in truth, he was a man of deep cunning. He seemed to deliberately let Zhang Yi, who loved to offer advice and steal the limelight, propose ineffective strategies. After Zhang Yi was slapped in the face, Yang Xiong would then step forward and present what he himself had in mind.

This way, on the one hand, he could be praised for being good at listening to his subordinates' opinions. On the other hand, every time, he could make the decisive call at the critical moment and reverse an erroneous strategy.

Sure enough, when Battalion Commander Yang revealed his true plan, it immediately drew a chorus of admiration from everyone in the tent.

"These past two days, though I appeared to be sending men to lure the enemy out, that was in truth only a smokescreen. The real objective was to let the craftsmen build siege equipment. Now the siege equipment is ready, and the enemy's morale — united in common hatred these first few days — has slackened. Starting tomorrow, all of you shall assault the city with full force!"

Finally, Yang Xiong ended with a line from the Weiliaozi to show his determination to take Outer Huang.

"The art of war says: there is victory won at court, victory won on the open field, and victory won in the city streets. Those who dare to fight will prevail; those who yield and retreat will be defeated!"

"Gentlemen, may I ask — when we take the city tomorrow, who will volunteer to be the first to ascend the wall?"

As he spoke, Yang Xiong turned his gaze toward Heifu's side of the tent!

PS: Second update at 16:00.

(End of chapter)