Chapter 179: Xiang Yan

On the twenty-seventh day of the tenth month, in Huaibei of Chu, atop a bare little hill, every kind of command flag and general's banner stood planted, as if countless trees had sprouted overnight.

The tallest tree among them, without question, was the great banner of the Supreme Pillar of State bearing the character "Xiang"; behind it, the commander-in-chief's great standard, hidden for many days, was now revealed, so that every Chu officer and soldier locked in fierce battle with the Qin army could see — their commander was here!

Xiang Yan had made this little hill his command post. All around were reserve troops poised to strike — half of them close-guard personal troops, half chariot and cavalry units.

Xiang Yan was over fifty, yet ever more vigorous with age. In his daily habits he had always kept a soldier's bearing: his back still ramrod straight, his voice like a great bell, deeply beloved by the officers and men of the Chu army.

In his youth he had led from the front, but as his years grew and his rank rose, he grew disinclined to take risks. Instead, he took to commanding the reserves, stationed on high ground with a sweeping view of the battle, committing troops to where they were needed most as the situation demanded — that was what a commander-in-chief ought to do.

At this moment, Xiang Yan stood erect in the wind, his gaze fixed on the chaotic battlefield stretching nearly ten li into the distance.

One could see that on the eastern half of this battlefield, the black-armored Qin troops were steadily retreating, while on the western half, the red-armored Chu troops were relentlessly pressing forward.

"The Qin army is defeated."

One of Xiang Yan's staff officers, watching the battle, showed a delighted expression. "The Qin general never dreamed that the Supreme Pillar of State would appear behind him!"

Xiang Yan shook his head. "This Qin force — I do not know whether it is commanded by Li Xin or Meng Tian — has charged ahead recklessly, far too contemptuous of the enemy. Young whelps, after all. Trying to play such petty tricks before this old man — still too green!"

Xiang Yan intended to use the same method to teach this rash Qin general a proper lesson!

……

This was a meeting engagement. After Li Xin used routed troops to clear the way and breached Juyang — a city also called "Yanying" in memory of the old southern Chu capital — Chu's first and second defensive lines in Huaibei had all but collapsed.

By this point, Li Xin's confidence and arrogance had reached their peak. He believed Chu had no one left, and that Xiang Yan was trapped defending Xiang City, so his march grew ever more unbridled.

After burning Chu army provisions at Juyang, Li Xin continued advancing northeast, reaching Chengfu, where he joined forces with ten thousand Qin troops that had set out from Suiyang.

Though many still urged him to return to Xiang City or Chenying to link up with Meng Tian, Li Xin rejected this counsel. He was preparing a bold plan: to thrust southeast and drive straight for the Chu capital, Shouchun! Once across the Huai River, Shouchun would have no defensible terrain!

This was the strategy Bai Qi had used to break Ying years ago. Li Xin resolved to replicate that miracle and destroy Chu by the same method.

Yet what Li Xin — who for over half a month had swept through Huaibei with triumphant momentum — did not expect was that the Xiang Yan and the Chu main force he had envisioned were not at Xiang City at all, but rather, one morning when the sky was not yet fully light, suddenly appeared behind him!

The Chu troops, who had marched three days and three nights without halting to rest, came roaring in with chariots and cavalry as if they had been holding their breath for ages. The detached troops Li Xin had placed at the rear were swept away before they could even resist. By the time scouts informed him of the Chu attack, Xiang Yan's great banner was already within a few li!

Tit for tat — just days earlier, Li Xin had caught the local Chu troops at Qinqiu utterly off guard and won a great victory; barely any time had passed before the Chu people repaid him in exactly the same fashion.

Li Xin only had time to order the Qin army, strung out in a long snake-like marching column, to reform ranks and adjust its facing. Yet once the Chu troops came charging in and clashed with the Qin forces, Li Xin realized that these were nothing like the motley troops he had routed before. They did not fall into disarray before the Qin army's orderly formations, but bravely charged forward to the beat of the war drums.

At this very moment, the melee had already lasted half a shichen. Although the Chu army had struck first and held the advantage, victory was by no means assured...

……

From Xiang Yan's vantage point, the five Chu square formations thrusting furthest forward — each five or six thousand strong — flew five battle flags red as flame: the clan troops of Zhao, Jing, and Qu, plus the forces from Jiangdong and Pengcheng.

Among them, the banners of the Zhao, Jing, and Qu clans had long been stalled, unable to advance. They too had run into the elite Neishi troops of Qin; soldiers in black and red were locked in tangled combat, inseparable.

The Pengcheng and Jiangdong troops, however, were somewhat unstoppable. They kept pushing forward from the flanks, squeezing the Qin army toward the center. For a time, the five Chu divisions seemed on the verge of encircling the Qin vanguard...

"Not just the troops of the three clans — the sons of Eastern Chu and Western Chu are loath to fall behind as well."

Xiang Yan could not help but voice his praise. The army under his command, numbering as many as fifty or sixty thousand, had been conscripted from Lu, Sishang, Jiangdong, and the various great and small nobles of Huainan. When war broke out at the start of the tenth month, Xiang Yan had his eldest son raise his own command flag and, with thirty thousand soldiers and civilians in Huaibei, pretend to be the main force at Xiang City to draw Qin attention. He himself had come to Huaidong to organize these several armies on the spot.

He had not expected that Li Xin would adopt a similar stratagem, rampaging across Huaibei with a single army. Xiang Yan was in no hurry; he simply turned the enemy's ploy against them, holding his forces back at first, and only after Li Xin's arrogance had swelled to the extreme did he bring his great army close to the Qin main force.

This battle was nothing like the frustrating campaigns of the five states against Qin. With their homeland facing annihilation, the Chu troops had truly fought with desperate valor.

It had not been in vain that he had endured the pressure of repeated rebukes from the King of Chu, trading land for time, letting Li Xin wreak havoc across Huaibei without revealing his intentions too soon.

The art of war says: He who is skilled at moving the enemy shows form, and the enemy will surely follow; he offers bait, and the enemy will surely take it!

In Xiang Yan's view, Li Xin's method of warfare committed the grave taboo of making excessive demands of one's troops. Facing this reckless opponent, he needed only to slowly guide the momentum of battle — move him with profit, await him with ready troops.

Just as expected, under Xiang Yan's deliberate guidance, the tiger called arrogance in Li Xin's heart grew day by day, until at last it devoured his reason and caution. At that moment, the "momentum of battle" that Xiang Yan held was like a boulder rolling down an exceedingly high and steep mountain — fierce in its coming, unstoppable!

At this stage, the stratagem had run its course; only the final clash remained. After all he had done, Xiang Yan still had no confidence of certain victory. If he could not defeat the Qin army but was instead defeated by them, then all his schemes would become a laughingstock, and Li Xin, for his bold plan to destroy Chu, would become a famed general of the age.

Fortunately, diligence was rewarded. After three days and three nights without halting to rest, they had at last found their opportunity at the Qin army's most unguarded moment.

From his commanding height, Xiang Yan could see the entire battle clearly. At this moment, the black banners of the ambushed Qin army were in constant retreat — no longer the slow withdrawal of the beginning, but gradually turning into a rapid fallback, just short of turning tail and fleeing. This was no longer a disadvantage that courage or tactics could reverse. The Chu troops outnumbered them, had waited at ease for the exhausted foe, and had seized every advantage of the initiative.

With no other choice, Li Xin committed his five thousand reserves into the fray. For a moment, all five Chu battle flags faltered in unison as they struggled bitterly against the Qin fresh troops.

Seeing that the enemy had no more men to use, Xiang Yan smiled. He immediately gave the order: "Transmit my command: the five thousand men on this hill are all to advance and attack the enemy. The foot soldiers will strike from the front; the chariots and cavalry will strike from the flanks."

This meeting engagement near Chengfu was effectively decided the moment Xiang Yan beat the war drums and sent forth the several thousand reserves surrounding him, along with five hundred war chariots...

Li Xin was accustomed to fighting battles that went his way; against this kind of bitter struggle, he was somewhat inexperienced. He had committed his reserves too early, and now, with no troops left to send — only a few hundred close-guard soldiers at his side — he was caught in a dilemma.

He would not have to agonize for long. With the addition of fresh troops, and with Xiang Yan's great banner now moving toward the battlefield, Chu morale soared. Led by the Jiangdong and Pengcheng armies, they finally pierced through the Qin formation...

The sound of gongs ringing retreat sounded again and again. In the end, Li Xin chose withdrawal. Abandoning several commandants trapped by the Chu army, he slowly fell back with the twenty thousand or so men he could rescue.

Corpses lay strewn across the battlefield; blood flowed like a river. The blood-soaked commanders of the Zhao, Jing, and Qu clans came to report their casualties to Xiang Yan and requested orders: "We wish to lead our troops in pursuit of the Qin army!"

Xiang Yan stroked his beard and did not answer at once.

Because the Chu army had launched its attack from behind the Qin forces, the west and south were both screened by Chu troops. Heading east would mean plunging deeper into Chu territory — that way was barred. The only direction for retreat, therefore, was north. Li Xin would likely retreat in defeat all the way back to Suiyang.

So he gave the order: "No need to pursue. We have more urgent matters to attend to."

The forty thousand Qin troops before him were routed, true, but over at Xiang City, another fifty thousand Qin soldiers were still besieging his eldest son.

In Xiang Yan's eyes, however, this meant the Qin forces were all pinned down, unable to advance or retreat.

His goal was not merely to drive the Qin army out of Chu, but to inflict the maximum possible casualties! Xiang Yan fervently hoped that for every additional Qin commandant eliminated, the next Qin invasion of Chu might be delayed by a month!

Besides, his ultimate objective for this war was to retake Chen and Cai.

Xiang Yan turned around and gazed in the direction of Huaiyang.

"Lord Changping, Chu has left the post of Acting Prime Minister vacant, awaiting you. Is it not time you made your choice?"

PS: I have to keep working through the night; I couldn't manage to write the third chapter. Currently 4 chapters behind.

(End of chapter)